AIM A randomised field trial was conducted to evaluate a school-based programme to prevent tobacco use in children and adolescents. SUBJECT AND METHODS Five hundred and thirty-four children and three hundred and eight adolescents were randomly select to receive or not receive the prevention programme. The prevention programme included: a) health facts and the effect of smoking; b) analysis of the mechanisms to start smoking; c) refusal skills training to deal with the social pressures to smoke. A questionnaire was administered before the intervention programme and two years later. RESULTS The prevalence rates of smoking in both group of children and adolescents resulted to be increased at the end of the study. Anyway, the difference of smoking prevalence between intervention and control group was statistically significant only for children group (from 18.3% to 18.8% for the intervention group, and from 17.8 % to 26.9% in the control group) (p = 0.035). As regards reasons that induced to start smoking, there was a significant increase of the issue "Because smokers are fool" (p = 0.004 for children; p < 0.001 for adolescents) and "Because smokers are irresponsible" (p ≤ 0.001 for both children and adolescents) in the experimental groups. CONCLUSION The results suggest that a school-based intervention programme on children and adolescent tobacco use, based on the development of cognitive and behavioural aspects, can be effective. After one year of intervention, smoking prevalence was significantly lower in children belonging to intervention group than in children not randomised to intervention. Targeting young children before they begin to smoke can be a successful way of prevention. AbstractAIM A randomised field trial was conducted to evaluate a school-based programme to prevent tobacco use in children and adolescents.SUBJECT AND METHODS Five hundred and thirty-four children and three hundred and eight adolescents were randomly select to receive or not receive the prevention programme. The prevention programme included: a) health facts and the effect of smoking; b) analysis of the mechanisms to start smoking; c) refusal skills training to deal with the social pressures to smoke. A questionnaire was administered before the intervention programme and two years later. RESULTSThe prevalence rates of smoking in both group of children and adolescents resulted to be increased at the end of the study. Anyway, the difference of smoking prevalence between intervention and control group was statistically significant only for children group (from 18.3% to 18.8% for the intervention group, and from 17.8 % to 26.9% in the control group) (p = 0.035). As regards reasons that induced to start smoking, there was a significant increase of the issue "Because smokers are fool" (p = 0.004 for children; p < 0.001 for adolescents) and "Because smokers are irresponsible" (p ≤ 0.001 for both children and adolescents) in the experimental groups. CONCLUSIONThe results suggest that a school-based intervention programme on children...
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