In 2002, project staff at the University of Illinois at Chicago Institute for Health Research and Policy held a one-day meeting to explore how regulations, particularly those of internal review boards, affect youth smoking cessation research.

Key Results

• "Expert Workshop on Human Subjects and Ethical Issues Related to Treatment and Research in the Area of Youth Smoking Cessation" took place October 16, 2002 in Chicago. Twenty-nine experts in human subjects and ethics, as well as youth smoking cessation, attended the meeting.
  
  As a result of the workshop discussions, staff generated five recommended action steps to improve research and treatment protocols for youth smokers:
  1. Develop and launch a Web site that includes the following:
     • Case studies of youth smoking cessation programs and how these programs worked with internal review boards.
     • Frequently asked questions that internal review board administrators receive from researchers.
     • Consultant lists for researchers and internal review boards to refer to for specific questions.
  2. Publish a literature search on youth smoking cessation research.
  3. Develop a consensus statement on regulatory and ethical issues, which would provide guidelines for internal review boards that are consistent with the needs of researchers working with adolescents.
  4. Conduct research to document the impact of internal review board requirements on treatment.
  5. Disseminate the workshop articles through conference presentations and peer-reviewed publications.
• Based on presentations from the workshop, project staff published two papers in the peer-reviewed journal Ethics & Behavior, vol. 14, no. 4, 2004.
  
  The first article is "Human Participant Challenges in Youth Tobacco Cessation Research: Researchers' Perspectives."
  
  The second article is "Human Participant Challenges in Youth-Focused Research: Perspectives and Practices of IRB Administrators."
  
  The workshop summary report and other presentations are also available online.

Funding

The Robert Wood Johnson Foundation (RWJF) provided $57,163 in support of the project between February 2002 and April 2004.