AAP Youth Tobacco Cessation Summit

Overview of AAP’s Youth Tobacco Cessation Initiative

In 2020, the American Academy of Pediatrics (AAP), with support from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) Office on Smoking and Health, launched a new initiative to advance youth tobacco cessation efforts nationally.  Recognizing that there is little scientific evidence available on tobacco cessation interventions and treatments for youth, and that clinicians are in pressing need today of greater guidance on how to help young patients quit, AAP launched a virtual Summit and series of key partner meetings intended to develop a new, evidenced-informed resource entitled, “Youth Tobacco Cessation: Considerations for Clinicians.”  This resource features promising practices in youth tobacco cessation that can be employed by pediatricians, other physicians, and allied health professionals alike.  

To inform the creation of this resource, AAP hosted a Virtual Summit on Youth Tobacco Cessation in November 2020. The Summit convened 30 pediatric clinicians and researchers with subject-matter expertise in the treatment of youth tobacco use, nicotine dependence, and other substance use disorders. The Summit had five main objectives:  

• Discuss current evidence & promising practices for youth tobacco cessation treatment 
• Identify key strategies to address youth cessation in clinical practice 
• Determine tools needed to integrate youth cessation treatment into clinical care 
• Identify common challenges to providing youth cessation treatment and ways to address them 
• Discuss tobacco use as a source of health disparities: How do we serve youth who are most at risk? 

Key findings from the Summit, as well as a list of participants, is included in the executive summary below.  

Executive Summary: AAP Youth Tobacco Cessation Summit 

Funding note: Funding for this Summit was provided through a Contract with the CDC (Contract #75D30120P08307). The views and opinions contained within the Executive Summary reflect those of Summit participants and are not necessarily those of the American Academy of Pediatrics, CDC or the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services.