Impact evaluations of the school-based Unplugged prevention intervention have shown it to have a measurably positive preventive effect on the Czech school population, but only limited data are available to identify its effectiveness in gender-specifi c terms. This article seeks to determine the gender-specifi c effectiveness of this drug prevention programme. The authors conducted a randomised trial of the programme on a total of 1874 children (with a mean age of 11.8 years). They collected data using a questionnaire from the European School Survey Project on Alcohol and Other Drugs. Baseline testing was conducted among sixth-grade students immediately prior to the programme's implementation, and fi ve follow-up tests were carried out 9, 12, 21, 24, and 33 months after the baseline testing. Gender-specifi c effectiveness was tested using three indicators: the 30-day prevalence of any tobacco or cannabis use and the 30-day prevalence of any drunkenness. The results comparing the experimental and control groups provide evidence of statistically signifi cant effects for any drunkenness among boys and any tobacco use among girls in the 30 days prior to testing. The programme was found to have positive effects on both genders' cannabis use, with girls showing lower levels of cannabis use even 33 months after the baseline test. Given the gender equality approach to drug prevention, differences in outcome may be overcome by adding gender-specifi c elements to the intervention programme's curriculum.

Unplugged is a school prevention programme widely implemtend in Europe, with some positive evaluations. This research aims to measure the impact of this program on tobacco use by means of the lifetime and last-30-day tobacco use prevalence indicators and verify the duration of the intervention's measurable effect over time. The study was designed as a randomised controlled prevention trial. The intervention is based on the Comprehensive Social Influence model and consists of 12 lessons delivered to Czech adolescents in the 2007-2008 academic year. The prevalence indicators were calculated to assess the differences between the experimental (N = 914) and control (N = 839) groups on each outcome 1, 3, 12, 15, and 24 months after the end of the intervention. Data were collected using the 2003 version of the ESPAD questionnaire. As regards the 30-day smoking prevalence indicator, the tests performed after the completion of the intervention showed statistically significant differences between both groups in favour of the experimental one. Two years after the completion of the intervention the experimental and control groups showed 30-day prevalence rates of 26.7% and 33.1%, respectively (p = .01). The progression of smoking in the 30-day prevalence among the experimental group was significantly slower than that among the control group over the period of time. The differences in the lifetime prevalence rates were not statistically significant. The implementation of Unplugged resulted in a statistically significant measurable positive effect on tobacco use in Czech adolescents.Key words: adolescent, school prevention, randomised controlled trial, tobacco use, Czech Republic.Unplugged es un programa de prevención escolar que se desarrolla en diversos países europeos, y que cuenta ya con varias evaluaciones. En este caso se pretende medir el impacto de la intervención sobre el consumo de tabaco utilizando las prevalencias de por vida y los últimos 30 días, así como también verificar la duración del efecto mediante un seguimiento. El estudio se diseñó como un ensayo controlado aleatorio. La intervención se basa en el modelo de influencia social integral y se compone de 12 lecciones impartidas a los adolescentes checos en el año académico [2007][2008]. Las prevalencias se calcularon para evaluar las diferencias entre el grupo experimental (N = 914) y control (n = 839) al cabo de 1, 3, 12, 15 y 24 meses después del final de la intervención. Los datos se recogieron utilizando la versión 2003 del cuestionario del proyecto ESPAD. En cuanto a haber fumado los últimos 30 días había diferencias significativas entre ambos grupos en favor de la experimental al finalizar la intervención. Dos años después de la finalización de la intervención de los grupos experimentales y de control de 30 días mostraron tasas de prevalencia de 26,7% y 33,1%, respectivamente (p = .01). La progresión en la prevalencia durante los últimos 30-días dentro del grupo experimental fue significativamente más lenta que entre el grupo de control durante el perí...