The evaluation of a secondary school smoking education intervention

Abstract

BASED on previous work from the USA, a five lesson smoking education plan was developed and used with Secondary 1 pupils (aged 12-13 years) in three schools. A survey by anonymous questionnaire six months after the intervention showed that, among pre-test non-smokers, 27 claimed to be smokers (7.3%) in the intervention schools compared with 11 (16.7%) in a control school (p<.001), while there was no statistically significant effect of the intervention on pre-test smokers. Multivariate analyses showed similarity of concurrent and true prospective predic tions of risk factors for smoking, but failed to show the prospective value for peer group example in those who had never smoked at pre-test. The conclu sion drawn on the efficacy of the intervention must be qualified since no objective validation of smoking testimony was attempted, while the control school was not chosen strictly at random and had a somewhat higher initial smoking rate. Nevertheless, there are good grounds for arguing that the educa tional intervention had a beneficial effect.