The 131st Annual Meeting (November 15-19, 2003) of APHA

Abstract #71746

Sharon P. Brown, PhD(c), MN, MPH, Environmental Health Sciences & Policy - Public Health & Epidemiology, University of California-Irvine, School of Social Ecology, Irvine, CA 92697, 520.297.2424, spbrown@uci.edu

Policies for school-based prevention programs have traditionally been focused on being “reasonably cost effective” and providing “best results.” With continued budgetary shortcomings for prevention programs, trends toward “the cheapest, but not necessarily the best” have become policy for many financially compromised U.S. school districts. More of a problem is programs targeted towards the majority of students participating not addressing specific substance abuse issues of other groups, e.g. minority ethnicity and gender.

The ethnicity and gender differences found as part of a cross-sectional analysis of a larger longitudinal study conducted in North Carolina and California of elementary and middle school students’ perception of substance use risk in relation to their actual or intended substance use prevalence rates will be presented. Significant differences have been already been found in children’s perceptions of health risks associated with varied categories of tobacco products use. Elementary children were less likely to have significant differences in their actual vs. intended use for the categories of specific risks associated with smoking cigarettes [0.09], using chewing tobacco [0.49], and environmental tobacco smoke exposure [0.33]; whereas, significant differences in middle schoolers’ perception of risk in these categories related to actual tobacco use were found. There were no differences found in their intention to use tobacco.

Ethnicity, gender, and age group level differences will be presented for children’s perceptions of health risk of various substances. Potential policy for customized programs for more cost effective and efficacious prevention curricula in light of these results will also be discussed.

Learning Objectives:

• At the end of this session, the participants will be able to 1)identify ethnicity and gender differences seen in children's perception of health risks associated with substance use, 2)compare the differences [identified in #1] by elementary vs. middle school levels, and 3)List two potential prevention policy changes to provide more customization to school-based programs

Keywords: Substance Abuse Prevention, Ethnicity

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.