Abstract
Introduction: Smoking among adolescents remains a major concern because of its long term health hazards. An effective adolescent-specific anti-smoking education is needed. Objectives: To measure the impact of a school-based tobacco prevention program provided by pharmacists on the attitudes and knowledge of senior high students. Methods: An anti-smoking program specifically aimed at high school students was developed by pharmacists and introduced to 354 students inTaiwan. It consisted of a role play and a lecture. The students were asked to complete a structural questionnaire right before and after the intervention. Results: After the intervention, the average of the total attitude scores increased from 41.7 to 43.2 (p = 0.001), and the total knowledge scores increased from 6.4 to 8.2 (p < 0.001). The average practice score was 31.2 (maximum score = 50) and the result suggested that the practice score was associated with attitude rather than knowledge. Conclusion: This pharmacist-conducted anti-smoking program for high school students resulted in positive changes regarding both attitude and knowledge. This suggests that further anti-smoking programs targeting students would be effective in helping to prevent youth smoking.
Highlights
Smoking among adolescents remains a major concern because of its long term health hazards
The current program, with its attempt to create more interactive and effective questioning, discussion and learning, was designed to measure the impact of a school-based tobacco prevention program provided by pharmacists on the attitudes and knowledge of senior high students
A total of 354 students participated in the education program, and 304 (86%) students completed and returned both the preintervention and post-intervention questionnaires
Summary
Smoking among adolescents remains a major concern because of its long term health hazards. Methods: An anti-smoking program aimed at high school students was developed by pharmacists and introduced to 354 students in Taiwan. It consisted of a role play and a lecture. Conclusion: This pharmacist-conducted anti-smoking program for high school students resulted in positive changes regarding both attitude and knowledge. This suggests that further anti-smoking programs targeting students would be effective in helping to prevent youth smoking. In Taiwan, 23.2% of ever-smoking high school students started smoking before reaching the age of 10 (Taiwan Tobacco Control 2009 Annual Report, 2009). Tobacco is classified as “Gateway” drug and research has shown that teens between 13 and 17 years of age
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