The Oslo Youth Study (1979-1981) was designed to evaluate the impact of a school-based health education program, including tobacco and alcohol use prevention. The study was implemented with participants from 6 combined elementary and junior high school students (average age was 13 in 1979; n=827), half of whom received the program. In 1999, all students formerly registered as participants were recontacted. The purpose of this presentation is to investigate the long-term impact of the smoking and alcohol component of the program as reported by the1999 participants (n=633). Overall, we found that 33.6% and 35.3% of the intervention and comparison participants respectively reported daily smoking in 1999 (n.s.). The smoking onset rate (daily and occasional smoking) among baseline non-smokers showed, however, a significant difference between the two groups (40.5% versus 51.2%; p<0.05). Furthermore, the two measures of alcohol consumption (frequency of drinking during the past 3 months (range 0-7) and frequency of being drunk during the past 6 months (range 0-5)) showed a significant long-term intervention effect (2.9 versus 3.2; p<0.05; and 1.1 versus 1.3; p<0.05). The results from the Oslo Youth Study should be interpreted with caution (six schools only participated). However, these long-term results offer some optimism regarding adults being able to apply knowledge and skills acquired through health education during their school age years.
Learning Objectives: Long-term impact of school-based health education
Keywords: School-Based Programs, Youth
Presenting author's disclosure statement:
Organization/institution whose products or services will be discussed: None
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.