(1) type of intervention design; (2) sample size and
sample representativeness; (3) specification of population characteristics;
(4) measurement validity and reliability; and (5) appropriateness
and replicability of intervention methods (Table 1). Criterion 1, research
design, refers to whether the intervention was a true randomized controlled
trial or a non-experimental study and considers equivalence of
groups at baseline. Criterion 2 contains both representativeness, including
an assessment of inclusion/exclusion criteria, and an assessment of
sample size/power estimate. Criterion 3 assesses the reporting of population
characteristics while Criterion 4 rates the quality of measurement
used, in this case for smoking cessation. Criterion 5 contains both appropriateness
and replicability of the intervention. These criteria were used
to evaluate the methodological quality of NRT interventions for
adolescent smoking cessation. Ratings were applied to the quality of research,
based on reported information, for each of the five dimensions.
Literature was gathered from EBSCOhost, ERIC, ProQuest, and
PubMed electronic databases. These databases were selected because
they are known for either health or educational interventions. Each
database was searched using the following string of terms to search
within the abstract: (adolescents OR teens OR “young adults” OR
students OR youth) AND (smoking OR cigarettes OR tobacco OR