Systematic review of school-based interventions to prevent smoking for girls

Abstract

BackgroundThe purpose of this review is to study the effect of school-based interventions on smoking prevention for girls.MethodsWe performed a systematic review of articles published since 1992 on school-based tobacco-control interventions in controlled trials for smoking prevention among children. We searched the databases of PubMed, Embase, Web of Science, The Cochrane Databases, CINAHL, Social Science Abstracts, and PsycInfo. Two reviewers independently assessed trials for inclusion and quality and extracted data. A pooled random-effects estimate was estimated of the overall relative risk.ResultsThirty-seven trials were included, of which 16 trials with 24,210 girls were included in the pooled analysis. The overall pooled effect was a relative risk (RR) of 0.96 (95 % confidence interval (CI) 0.86-1.08; I2=75 %). One study in which a school-based intervention was combined with a mass media intervention showed more promising results compared to only school-based prevention, and four studies with girl-specific interventions, that could not be included in the pooled analysis, reported statistically significant benefits for attitudes and intentions about smoking and quit rates.ConclusionsThere was no evidence that school-based smoking prevention programs have a significant effect on preventing adolescent girls from smoking. Combining school-based programs with mass media interventions, and developing girl-specific interventions, deserve additional study as potentially more effective interventions compared to school-based-only intervention programs.Systematic review registrationPROSPERO CRD42012002322Electronic supplementary materialThe online version of this article (doi:10.1186/s13643-015-0082-7) contains supplementary material, which is available to authorized users.

Delivering an action agenda for nutrition interventions addressing adolescent girls and young women: priorities for implementation and research

“…There are “youth to youth” educational and awareness campaigns that can provide education and promote healthy eating. However, these are also strategies than can be targeted by inappropriate marketing and promotion of potentially useless and at times harmful practices . The utilization of mainstream social media for promoting healthy practices and behaviors has special potential for reaching adolescents, especially if the messages can be tailored to promote key practices.…”

“…However, these are also strategies than can be targeted by inappropriate marketing and promotion of potentially useless and at times harmful practices. [62][63][64] The utilization of mainstream social media for promoting healthy practices and behaviors has special potential for reaching adolescents, especially if the messages can be tailored to promote key practices. These social marketing campaigns use multiple channels and either paid or non-paid content to spread their message widely.…”

Pilot evaluation of a school-based health education intervention in the UK: Facts4Life

“…[5][6][7] School-based interventions have been shown to improve children's health-related attitudes, knowledge and behaviours [8][9][10][11] and enhance children's health literacy through the development of critical thinking and evidence appraisal skills, [12][13] skills which may enable children to make better informed choices about their health. 14 However, despite recent systematic review evidence indicating some positive short term health outcomes associated with school-based interventions [15][16][17] the overall quality of the evidence is mixed, due to methodological limitations 15 and differences in intervention content. 18 The content of school-based programmes tends to focus on strategies for promoting health, with limited consideration of illness and its origins.…”

“…Unlike traditional health education interventions, which are often teacher-or expert-led, 18 children were encouraged to discuss health and illness issues that resonated with their own personal experiences and interests, an approach that has been shown to influence children's learning. [35][36] Furthermore, while many health education interventions are delivered as one aspect of the school day, 16 the concept of embedding interventions across the curriculum is not new and studies have shown that such an approach to health education is associated with improved health outcomes. [36][37][38] Furthermore, Facts4Life has potential as a sustainable school-based intervention as its content and activities are explicitly linked to the UK National curriculum, and therefore do not add unduly to time pressures and over-crowding of the school teaching timetable experienced in many schools.…”

“…18 The content of school-based programmes tends to focus on strategies for promoting health, with limited consideration of illness and its origins. [15][16] This could be because illness is a topic that adults often avoid or find too difficult to discuss with children. [19][20] It is inevitable that children will be exposed to illness at some point in their lives.…”