Comparing Effects of Auricular Acupressure with and Without an Internet-Assisted Program on Smoking Cessation and Self-Efficacy of Adolescents

OBJECTIVES: This study aimed to develop an Internet-assisted smoking cessation program accompanied with auricular acupressure, and compare the quit rate and self-efficacy of youth smokers receiving auricular acupressure with and without the Internet-assisted smoking cessation program. DESIGN: A Website was constructed on IBM Websphere 5.0 and DB2 database using HTML, Javascript, and JSP. A quasiexperimental research design was adopted. Subjects were assigned nonrandomly to two groups. Group 1 received auricular acupressure plus the Internet-assisted smoking cessation program, whereas group 2 received auricular acupressure only. MEASUREMENTS: The data of demographic factors, serum cotinine, quitting rate, nicotine dependence, and self-efficacy of subjects were collected before and after a 4-week intervention. RESULTS: After intervention, the quit rate was 15.78% in group 1 and 2.56% in group 2. Nicotine dependence was significantly lowered in group 1, but remained unchanged in group 2. The improvement of self-efficacy between groups 1 and 2 was significantly different. CONCLUSIONS: The combination of auricular acupressure and Internet-assisted smoking cessation program was more efficacious than auricular acupressure alone in terms of quit rate.