Evaluation of a Program to Reduce Smoking in High School Students

Summary

Effectiveness of health education regarding the smoking habit is under discussion . Nevertheless, according to the literature, some personal, familiar, cultural, and social factors are considered risk factors for students to become smokers. Probably, a health education intervention integrated in the school program will show a higher rate of effectiveness regarding incidence and prevalence of smoking habit in this age-group .

OBJECTIVE: To evaluate the effectiveness of a health education program to reduce the smoking habit in students.

METHODOLOGY: Quasi-experimental design including all the junior high school students in an educational district in Tarragona (Spain). The sampled schools will be randomised into two groups (experimental and control). All the included students will be monitored for three years.

The health education program will be divided in three interventions: role games and debates (1st year), workshops regarding the family and the social role of smoking (2nd year) , and the analysis of smoking advertising (3rd year). The incidence and prevalence rates will be compared on the experimental and control group, before de beginning of the intervention and at the beginning of each year.

Conditions

• Smoking in Adolescents

Interventions

BEHAVIORAL

Health education in the high school

(12- 13 years old): 1.Questionnaire and measuring of carbon monoxide in air. 2.Role Games.3.Build a machine that simulates a cigarette. (13-14 years old):1.Questionnaire and measuring of carbon monoxide in air.2. Workshop dealing with current television series broadcast in Spain in which tobacco is constantly present.3.Workshop dedicated to make young people and their families stop smoking.A competition is performed between all the schools in order to reward the bookmark with the best motto asking any close person to stop smoking or thanking them for having quit. (14-15 years old):1.Questionnaire and measuring of carbon monoxide in air. 2. Workshop to go into depth about tobacco effects,by searching in the internet, aiming for the creation of an anti-tobacco pressure group in social networks such like Facebook.3.Workshop to create an advertising campaign to encourage non-consumption by mobile messages,use of internet..coinciding with the international day without tobacco.

Sponsors & Collaborators

• Instituto de Salud Carlos III

  collaborator OTHER_GOV

• Institut Catala de Salut

  collaborator OTHER_GOV

• Fundacio d'Investigacio en Atencio Primaria Jordi Gol i Gurina

  lead OTHER

Principal Investigators

• Empar Valdivieso, RN, MSN · Fundacio d'Investigacio en Atencio Primaria Jordi Gol i Gurina

Study Design

Allocation

RANDOMIZED

Purpose

PREVENTION

Masking

NONE

Model

PARALLEL

Eligibility

Min Age

12 Years

Max Age

16 Years

Sex

ALL

Healthy Volunteers

Yes

Timeline & Regulatory

Start

2008-01-31

Primary Completion

2008-07-31

Completion

2010-07-31

Countries

• Spain

Study Locations