Abstract
This study had two objectives. The first was to assess the frequency and content of school-based anti-smoking education received by Romanian adolescents aged 14-15. Secondly, the study aimed to evaluate to what extent the implementation of a specific 5 lessons smoking prevention program influences the quality of anti-smoking school education among Romanian adolescents. The investigation was performed in twenty schools from Cluj- Napoca, Romania, which were randomly assigned to the control and experimental conditions, resulting in 55 participating classes from the seventh grade (28 in the control group and 27 in the experimental group). The experimental group participated in a school-based smoking prevention program consisting of 5 lessons. The control group beneficiated only in the standard anti-smoking education offered by their schools. Six months after the program implementation, students from both experimental and control groups filled in a questionnaire, assessing several issues regarding their exposure to anti-smoking school education in the last year. The results showed a low exposure to anti-smoking school education among the Romanian adolescents. The implementation of the specific school-based smoking prevention program increased the exposure of Romanian adolescents to a higher number of lessons of smoking prevention and influenced positively the quality of these lessons. The study identified several gaps with respect to anti-smoking education in Romanian schools. It underlines the benefits of the implementation of a school based smoking prevention program with a clear structure, which contains appropriate educational messages and it is easy to implement.
Highlights
Cigarette smoking represents a significant health problem and tobacco has been identified as causing more preventable diseases and premature deaths than any other drug (Mathers et al, 2006)
The investigation was performed in twenty schools from ClujNapoca, Romania, which were randomly assigned to the control and experimental conditions, resulting in 55 participating classes from the seventh grade (28 in the control group and 27 in the experimental group)
The results showed a low exposure to anti-smoking school education among the Romanian adolescents
Summary
Cigarette smoking represents a significant health problem and tobacco has been identified as causing more preventable diseases and premature deaths than any other drug (Mathers et al, 2006). Adolescent smoking have possible harmful effects on later social, emotional, and behavioural well-being, besides short-term and long-term bad consequences on health (US Department of Health and Human Services, 1994a; 1994b; Mathers et al, 2006; Oluwakemi et al, 2013). All these issues underline the necessity of providing appropriate education for smoking prevention for adolescents, as an important step for assuring a good educational development and health promotion. The implementation of school-based smoking prevention programmes depends on limited time, and on sometimes insufficiently trained or unmotivated personnel (Murray et al, 1992, Lotrean et al, 2010)
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