Introduction: Web-based smoking prevention programs can be delivered to large groups of adolescents under relatively private conditions at a convenient cost, but their effectiveness is highly dependent on the level of exposure to the educational content. The objective of the study was to identify the predictors of high program exposure among a group of adolescents participating in a web-based smoking prevention cluster randomized trial in Romania. Methods: The study sample included 675 adolescents from Târgu Mureş, Romania. The level of exposure to the ASPIRE web-based smoking prevention program was monitored using data automatically saved on the system server. High program exposure was defined as watching 75% to 100% of the educational content. Associations between adolescents’ sociodemographic, psychological, and behavioral variables collected online at the beginning of the intervention and high program exposure were tested using chi-square test and logistic regression. Results: In all, 68.3% of students were highly exposed to the program. There were 4 significant predictors of high program exposure in the multivariable logistic regression model: participant’s father’s lower level of education (odds ratio [OR]: 1.75; 95% confidence interval [CI]: 1.19-2.44), participant’s brother’s nonsmoking status (OR: 1.76; 95% CI: 1.13-2.72), never trying e-cigarettes (OR: 1.73; 95% CI: 1.22-2.45), and considering the health of others an important reason not to smoke (OR: 2.46; 95% CI: 1.54-3.93). Conclusions: The analysis identified sociodemographic, psychological, and behavioral factors that may be useful in project management of such intervention to improve program effectiveness.

Anti-tobacco programmes that incorporate the role family and peers to reduce smoking are needed to address the high rates of use among Romanian foster care children.

Background: Smoking is a problem of the modern world and annually produces more victims, and due to ignorance and lack of health education in our country the disease diagnosis is made at an advanced stage. Many studies show that, young people aged between 10 and 18 are smokers and start smoking at an increasingly early age.Objective: The purpose of this study was to assess the smoking habits of institutionalized children in family care homes from Harghita and Mures county.Methods: The method chosen was a sociological survey based on questionnaires. Our study included 254 children institutionalized in family care homes in Mures county and 254 children from Harghita county. Statistical analysis was performed using the Statistical Package for Social Sciences.Results: A statistically significant difference was obtained analyzing the number of smokers from the group of children under 12 years in Mures compared to the Harghita county. More than half of children smoked their first cigarette after they entered in family care homes in both counties and the most common setting in which the children were smoking was when being together with their friends.Conclusions: In Mures county the number of smokers under the age of 12 was significantly higher than in Harghita county. Despite the educational classes and institutional regulations of smoking, more than half of children smoke. The decisive role in testing of smoking are the friends. Due to the very high number of underage smokers, the prevention and education hours have an unquestionable importance.

IntroductionQuit-smoking support is provided to Romanian smokers since 2007 through a network of stop-smoking centres. The study aimed to collect up-to-date information about the availability of psychological counselling and medication for smoking cessation at the existing specialised centres.Materials and methodsAll the stop-smoking centres listed on the program’s official website were contacted by phone by a trained evaluator introducing himself as a smoker in need of professional support.ResultsOf the 41 counties listed on the website, only 70.7% provided a contact phone number for the stop-smoking centre. While 56.1% of the centres answered the first or second call, the actual availability of quit support was confirmed by only 41.5% of the centres. The time till the first appointment varied between 1 day and 1 month. Psychological support and free medication for treating nicotine addiction were available in 36.6% and 14.6% of the centres, respectively.ConclusionThe availability of stop-smoking support at the time of the assessment was significantly limited.