Smoke-free-school-hours at vocational education and training schools in Denmark: attitudes among managers and teaching staff \u2013 a national cross-sectional study

Clara Heinze,Anneke Vang Hjort,Charlotte Demant Klinker,Helle Terkildsen Maindal,Peter Elsborg

doi:10.1186/s12889-019-7188-0

Clara Heinze, Anneke Vang Hjort + Show 3 more

Open Access

https://doi.org/10.1186/s12889-019-7188-0

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Abstract

BackgroundTobacco is the main cause of non-communicable disease and premature death globally. Implementing restrictive school tobacco policies such as smoke-free-school-hours (SFSH) may have the potential to reduce smoking among Vocational Education and Training (VET) school students. To be effective, school tobacco policies that largely involve strict and consistent enforcement by both managers and teaching teaching staff must be implemented. This study investigated the attitudes towards the implementation of SFSH among the managers and teaching staff at Danish VET schools.MethodsThe analyses were based on cross-sectional survey data collected with an online survey among managers and teaching staff at Danish VET schools. The data was collected from March to June 2017.ResultsManagers and teaching staff (n = 571) from 71 out of 87 Danish VET schools (81.6%) took part in the survey. In the adjusted analysis, teaching staff were twice as likely as managers to have a favourable attitude towards SFSH. Furthermore, being female and of increasing age correlated with having a favourable attitude. A trend towards schools in favour of SFSH having more health promotion facilities, policy and practice, was identified.Conclusion and implicationsExisting health promotion facilities and activities at the schools were associated with a favorable attitude among the management towards implementing SFSH. Thus, implementing other health promotion activities and policies might be an important first step to establish readiness to implement SFSH.

Highlights

Tobacco is the main cause of non-communicable disease and premature death globally
The participants who did not answer the item about attitude towards implementing SFSH were excluded (n = 125); 445 participants (150 managers and 295 teaching staffs) distributed across 71 Danish Vocational Education and Training (VET) schools were included in this study
We found that the teaching staff in Danish VET schools had a more favourable attitude towards SFSH compared to the management, which is opposite to our hypothesis and that found in the scholarly literature on the health promoting school approach

Summary

Introduction

Implementing restrictive school tobacco policies such as smoke-free-school-hours (SFSH) may have the potential to reduce smoking among Vocational Education and Training (VET) school students. In European countries, Vocational Education and Training (VET) school students are more likely to be daily smokers compared to students with a higher education [4, 5] This is the case in Denmark, where the prevalence of daily smoking among students enrolled in VET schools is 37% compared to 12% among peers in high schools [6]. A number of studies have found that strict and consistent enforcement of tobacco policies, at both school and work settings, may prevent or reduce cigarette smoking [11,12,13,14]

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