 |
The 130th Annual Meeting of APHA |
|
The 130th Annual Meeting of APHA |
Tori Harris, MPH1, Carolyn C. Johnson, PhD1, Larry S. Webber, PhD2, Leann Myers, PhD2, Neil W. Boris, MD1, Jocelyn A. Andrel, MSPH1, and Katherine Madden, MPH1. (1) Community Health Sciences, Tulane University School of Public Health & Tropical Medicine, 1440 Canal St., 23rd Floor, New Orleans, LA 70112, (504) 586-3997, tharris2@tulane.edu, (2) Biostatistics, Tulane University School of Public Health & Tropical Medicine, 1440 Canal Street, 20th Floor, New Orleans, LA 70112
ACTT is an innovative smoking prevention program that saturates the school environment rather than a consistent classroom curriculum. Academic benchmarks and teacher accountability now make high school classroom time difficult to obtain. Because the idea is new, 10th graders in five Louisiana parishes were approached in focus groups for input regarding program acceptability, intervention suggestions and general attitudes about the use of tobacco. Some 134 students in 16 focus groups provided information about tobacco use on campus, early smoking experiences, availability of cigarettes, influences for smoking initiation and maintenance, school policy, media campaigns and program effectiveness. Students’ personal experiences and environmental and school factors included modeling by adults, smoking on campus, ineffectiveness of the Surgeon General’s warning, and smoking being less problematic than other drugs. Specific information in all of these domains will be presented; however, one overriding theme was students’ proclaimed independence and personal choice. The intervention activities to date have used this theme and will be described. The formative evaluation phase of ACTT was useful in guiding initial intervention activities and additional focus groups and media impact surveys will be used to determine student acceptability and value.
Learning Objectives:
Keywords: Adolescents, Smoking
Presenting author's disclosure statement:
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.