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The 130th Annual Meeting of APHA |
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The 130th Annual Meeting of APHA |
Joyce Morris, PhD and Dave Wattenbarger, MS. Tobacco Use Prevention Service, Oklahoma State Department of Health, 1000 NE 10th St, Oklahoma City, OK 73117-1299, (405) 271-3619, JoyceMo@health.state.ok.us
In 2001 the Oklahoma Legislature funded a program to put school nurses into rural districts that previously had not had a full-time school nurse. Additional criteria included a high tobacco prevalence, high minority enrollment, and high low income enrollment. These nurses were charged with developing and implementing a comprehensive tobacco control program. Because only one of the hired nurses had previous school health training or experience and none had previous tobacco training or experience, the nurses were provided with training in school health and tobacco. They were also trained in the use of two CDC-approved curricula and a school-based cessation program. The Oklahoma Youth Tobacco Survey is one tool being used to evaluate this program. The survey was administered to all students in grades 6 to 12 who were present on the day of the survey. The baseline was completed in April/May 2001 and the follow-up in March/April 2002. This paper will focus on the changes in attitudes and behavior of the students in these schools.
Learning Objectives:
Keywords: Tobacco Control, Evaluation
Presenting author's disclosure statement:
I have a significant financial interest/arrangement or affiliation with any organization/institution whose products or services are being discussed in this session.
Relationship: Employed by Oklahoma State Department of Health. Program is joint program of OSDH and Oklahoma Department of Education