 | The 131st Annual Meeting (November 15-19, 2003) of APHA |
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| The 131st Annual Meeting (November 15-19, 2003) of APHA |
Marilyn A. Winkleby, PhD, MPH1, David Ahn, PhD1, Ellen C Feighery, RN, MS2, Meredith Dunn, MA2, and Joel Killen, PhD2. (1) Stanford Center for Research in Disease Prevention, Stanford University School of Medicine, 1000 Welch Road, Palo Alto, CA 94304-1825, 650-723-7055, winkleby@stanford.edu, (2) Stanford Center for Research in Disease Prevention, Stanford University, 1000 Welch Rd, Palo Alto, CA 94304-1825
We developed and tested a smoking prevention intervention to engage high-risk teens in advocacy activities related to the advertising, availability, and use of tobacco in their schools and communities. Ten continuation high schools in California (11th and 12th graders) were randomly assigned to receive our new curriculum that involved participating in advocacy activities to counter smoking influences in the community (treatment group) or an existing curriculum that focused on preventing substance abuse (control group). The one-semester intervention was repeated for four phases from 2000-2002 (798 total students). Smoking status (defined as non-smoking, light smoking or regular smoking) and advocacy-related constructs were assessed at three time points: baseline, post-intervention (92% response rate), and 6-months follow-up (85% response rate). Smoking was confirmed by carbon monoxide readings. Classes were used as the unit of analysis. There were no significant net changes between treatment and control classes for non-smoking or light-smoking. However, there was a significant net change for regular smoking; regular smoking decreased 3.7% in treatment classes and increased 1.5% in control classes, p <.001). Regular smoking decreased an additional 1.5% in treatment classes at 6 months post-intervention. Significant net differences were also shown for treatment compared with control classes from baseline to post-intervention for advocacy-related constructs: involvement in community-advocacy activities (p<.001), perceived incentive value (p <.001), perceived self-efficacy (p. <.01, and outcome expectancies (p <.001). This randomized trial shows that students can be successfully engaged in community advocacy activities to address environmental influences of tobacco, leading to significant decreases in regular smoking.
Learning Objectives:
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.