The Artful Truth Healthy Propaganda Arts Project is a pilot program designed by the Wolfsonian -Florida International University as part of the Florida Tobacco Pilot Program. The project teaches youth how to recognize tobacco industry manipulation through analysis of tobacco advertisements. The study design was a pre/post questionnaire. Students were presented with a tobacco advertisement and a pre questionnaire about smoking attitudes and behaviors. The three-month Artful Truth intervention consisted of information sessions and activities, followed by administration of a post questionnaire. The sample of 780 students consisted of 78% in elementary school, 19% in middle school, and 3% in high school. The breakdown by gender was 46% male and 54% female. Students answered questions by choosing the level that best expressed their views on tobacco through four words: bad, healthy, cool, and dangerous. The "bad," "healthy," and "dangerous" pre/post pairs showed significant changes (p£0.00, p£0.00, p£0.01, respectively). Student attitudes toward smoking were "less healthy," "more bad," and "more dangerous" following Artful Truth intervention. Smoking was also "less cool," but those results were not significant (p£0.10). Stratifying the data according to gender and school level yielded similar results. Artful Truth was successful in improving attitudes toward tobacco when measuring Florida Tobacco Pilot Program goals; these outcomes do not measure Artful Truth goals. The current evaluation addresses the extent to which art enables youth to recognize tobacco industry manipulation, a goal of Artful Truth. These results will be made available by the time of the conference.
Learning Objectives: Determine the extent to which the Artful Truth education program influences the reporting of smoking attitudes among Florida youth
Keywords: Tobacco Control, Evaluation
Presenting author's disclosure statement:
Organization/institution whose products or services will be discussed: University of Miami School of Medicine
I do not have any significant financial interest/arrangement or affiliation with any organization/institution whose products or services are being discussed in this session.