"The school of health", a multi-area approach for smoking prevention at school. II. Preliminary results

Background. To date no consensus has been reached about to which kind of educational interventions are effective to curb smoking uptake in adolescents. Aims. To carry out a pilot educational intervention with multimodal integrated strategies to reduce smoking habit in adolescents. Methods. A 6-month intervention was carried out in 3 high schools. Students attended repeated meetings devoted to information on tobacco risks, development of refusal skills, scientific laboratories with real time measurement of particle deposition in the lung and of the composition of passive smoking. A theoretical/practical course on food and beverage healthy choices was carried out. A website devoted to students’ activities during the program was actively participated by peers. At the end of the program participants were asked to present the skills they experienced in a press release. Pre and post tests on smoking items and habits were carried out. Results. A total of 277 (M=89, F=188) adolescents aged 13-15 (90.3 %) and 16-17 (9.7 %) were enrolled in the study. Baseline reported smoking was more frequent among girls (20%) as compared to boys (13%), with a mean ex-CO test of 1.03 ppm in girls and 0.56 in boys (p Conclusions. A comprehensive approach on tobacco use and healthier style of life showed encouraging results on curbing smoking habit.