INTRODUCTION

The booklet I Quit! was developed with young people and health professionals
during 1998. It grew out of a concern widely expressed within the Smoking and
Young People Network and elsewhere that there were no appropriate resources
for cessation work with teenagers. Health promotion professionals from four
Health and Local Authorities (Dudley, Sheffield, Stoke on Trent, Southwark)
formed an advisory group with Comic Company to develop and pilot draft
versions of a booklet with young people in their areas.

I Quit! in its final version was designed as a self-help guide that could also be used
for group work in a variety of settings.

In the first year of publication (December 1998-9) 70,000 copies of I Quit! had been
bought by more than 100 organisations throughout the UK. These included health
authorities and health promotion departments, smoking cessation projects, GP
surgeries, local authorities, schools and colleges, youth services, adult basic
education programmes, community groups, drug education teams, information
centres, HM Forces and national charities such as Barnardo's.

THE EVALUATION OF

I QUIT!

An evaluation of I Quit! was started in October 1999 . The aim was to find out how
the booklet had been used and with what effect. Research would be carried out
with'mediators' ( the health and other professionals who had bought I Quit! on
behalf of young people as end users) and with young people themselves.

Research with mediators

A questionnaire was devised and sent to 96 organisations that had bought I Quit!
between December 1998 and September 1999. The questionnaire aimed to
establish:

•  which health, education and other professionals had used I Quit!
•  who they had used it with
• how they had used it
• what they thought about I Quit! and its effectiveness
• what response/feedback they had got from young people
• their views on what they would like to see on an I Quit! teen website

22 copies of the questionnaire were returned, a response rate of 23%.

All organisations that did not return the questionnaire were contacted by phone
(around 70 contacts) and 30 telephone interviews were arranged. These interviews
were carried out from December 1999 to March 2000. Each interview lasted
between 10 minutes and half-an-hour. Interviews were based on the questionnaire
but encouraged interviewees to develop aspects/issues that were particularly
relevant to them.