About the Project

The Health Connections Study aims to learn more about the health habits and smoking patterns from teen years through young adulthood. We hope to use the results of this research to develop better health promotion programs for teens and young adults. Between 2005-06, we enrolled approximately 1300 teens from the Chicago area, along with their parents, into our research study. Some of these teens had never smoked, some had smoked once or twice, and others smoked more often. The study has been underway for the past five years, with some portions of the study completed while others like our new phone survey currently being conducted from late 2009 through spring of 2010 are ongoing.

There have been many pieces to the Health Connections Study:

1. Health Habits: Questionnaires and surveys
2. Electronic Diary: Hand-held computers carried for a week
3. Family Talk: Videotaped discussions about family life and cigarette smoking
4. Smoking and Emotions: Lab assessments of emotional and physical reactions to pictures and smoking

We have submitted a new grant to the National Cancer Institute to continue this study. It is currently under review and if funding is awarded would begin in summer of 2010.