Adapting a computer-based smoking prevention program to Latin American adolescents

. Objective: Development of a linguistically advanced and culturally appropriate Spanish version of ASPIRE (A Smoking Prevention Interactive Experience) and its evaluation among school‑age children from Colombia and Mexico was performed. Material and methods: The current study sought to employ a structured adaptation approach in the development of an improved Spanish version of ASPIRE, which is an online, interactive multimedia program designed for middle and high school students that has shown success in decreasing smoking initiation. Results: For the overall sample, the mean value for the pretest knowledge score before accessing ASPIRE was 62.5 ( ± 10.33), while the mean value for the post‑test score after completing the multimedia program was 77.5 ( ± 15.42). Conclusions: Following edits and changes to the Spanish script based on expert comments we were able to further elaborate culturally appropriate content during the youth focus groups. This «bottom‑up» approach provided meaningful input from the targeted adolescents themselves.