Abstract
Adolescents living in vulnerable regions are more exposed to risk factors for drug use. The prevention of such use in school is a public policy that needs evaluation. Based on technical criteria and derived from a mixed research, this article analyses the quality of school-based prevention of drug use in Vitória, state of Espírito Santo, Brazil, and proposes improvements. A checklist of quality elements was completed with data from 16 projects proposed by 99 teachers from public schools. In 10 projects (62.5%), the approximate quality index was above 0.50. The majority of projects fulfilled the requirement of theoretical foundation (81.25%) and some of the methodological (93.75%), design (75%) and implementation (62%) requirements. Other requirements were absent: the majority were not designed by the whole school community (87.5%), and the participation of the family (62.5%) or the students as mediators (62.5%) was not considered. In general, contents of life skills (87.5%), positive relationships and alternative activities to drug use (56.25%) were not included. Activities for reinforcing the content were not described in any of the projects, and evaluation activities were described in only a few (31.25%). Many projects did not describe the inclusion of the project in the school curriculum (62.5%). Although, considering all items of effectiveness, regardless of their weight, more than half of the projects had an above average quality. The present items provide quality to the projects, whereas absent items indicate shortcomings to be improved using some of the measures described in this study.
Highlights
Drug abuse is a serious public health problem related to morbidity and mortality statistics (Griffin and Botvin 2010)
While the frequency of this use is lower in public schools in Brazil than in private schools, heavy or daily drug use is more frequent among public school students of low socioeconomic levels (Carline et al 2010)
The target population of the intervention coincided with the education level offered by most of the schools: elementary school students (56.25%)
Summary
Drug abuse is a serious public health problem related to morbidity and mortality statistics (Griffin and Botvin 2010). While the frequency of this use is lower in public schools in Brazil than in private schools, heavy or daily drug use is more frequent among public school students of low socioeconomic levels (Carline et al 2010). A recent Thai study (Wongtongkam et al 2014) showed that little involvement with the school is a strong risk factor, increasing the chances of using club drugs 10-fold and tripling the chances of using solvents. These and other factors are more incisive in the adolescent’s transition to secondary school, a level that predisposes students to experimentation (Piko and Kovács 2010)
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