The European Journal of Public Health Advance Access published online on January 5, 2007
The European Journal of Public Health, doi:10.1093/eurpub/ckl107
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© 2006. The Author(s).
This is an Open Access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution Non-Commercial License (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc/2.0/uk/) which permits unrestricted non-commercial use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited.
The effects of a three-year smoking prevention programme in secondary schools in Helsinki
Erkki Vartiainen1, Marjaana Pennanen1, Ari Haukkala2, Froukje Dijk3, Riku Lehtovuori4 and Hein De Vries3
1Health Promotion and Chronic Disease Prevention, National Public Health Institute Finland
2University Lecturer, Department of Social Psychology, University of Helsinki Finland
3Department of Health Education and Promotion, University of Maastricht The Netherlands
4Health Promotion and Chronic Disease Prevention, National Public Health Institute Finland, presently with United Nations Office on Drugs and Crime, Wien, Austria
Correspondence: Erkki Vartiainen, MD, PhD, Professor, Health Promotion and Chronic Disease Prevention, National Public Health Institute, Mannerheimintie 166, 00300 Helsinki, Finland, tel: +358 9 47448622, fax: +358 9 47448338, e-mail: erkki.vartiainen{at}ktl.fi
Background: This study evaluates the effects of a 3-year smoking prevention programme in secondary schools in Helsinki. The study is part of the European Smoking prevention Framework Approach (ESFA), in which Denmark, Finland, the Netherlands, Portugal, Spain and the UK participated. Methods: A total of 27 secondary schools in Finland participated in the programme (n = 1821). Schools were randomised into experimental (13) and control groups (14). The programme included 14 information lessons about smoking and refusal skills training. The 3-year smoking prevention programme was also integrated into the standard curriculum. The community-element of the programme included parents, parish confirmation camps and dentists. The schools in the experimental group received the prevention programme and the schools in the control group received the standard health education curriculum. Results: Among baseline never smokers (60.8%), the programme had a significant effect on the onset of weekly smoking in the experimental group [OR = 0.63 (0.45–0.90) P = 0.009] when compared with the control group. Being female, doing poorly at school, having parents and best friends who smoke and more pocket money to spend compared with others were associated with an increased likelihood of daily and weekly smoking onset. These predictors did not have an interaction effect with the experimental condition. Conclusion: This study shows that a school- and community-based smoking prevention programme can prevent smoking onset among adolescents.
Keywords: Adolescents, prevention, smoking
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