A statewide approach to adolescent tobacco-use prevention: the Minnesota-Wisconsin Adolescent Tobacco-Use Research Project.

Adolescent smoking rates remain high and the use of smokeless tobacco is increasing, especially among males. Despite this continuing public health problem and the recent development of more effective prevention programs, few adolescents now participate in such programs at school. Recent legislation in Minnesota established guidelines for tobacco-use prevention programming and provides financial incentives to school districts to use more effective methods. The Minnesota-Wisconsin Adolescent Tobacco-Use Research Project has implemented an evaluation design that will provide data on the efficacy of this statewide approach to the prevention of tobacco use among adolescents. This article describes the current state of tobacco-use prevention programming in Minnesota schools, current efforts to improve on that record, and the research design set up to evaluate these strategies.