Abstract

Smokebusters is a community-based smoking prevention initiative for young people which aims to prevent them from starting to smoke. Although the number of clubs throughout the UK and Europe has increased over the last decade, there is little evidence of the effectiveness of this initiative. The authors conducted a systematic review of published and unpublished health promotion evaluation reports in an attempt to assess the effectiveness of this intervention. This paper outlines the methodological and practical difficulties encountered when conducting a systematic review of a community-based health promotion initiative.