Evaluation of the effectiveness of a smoking prevention program based on the 'Life Skills Training' approach

• Published in: Health education research Vol. 28; no. 4; pp. 673 - 682
• Main Authors: Luna-Adame, María, Carrasco-Giménez, Tomás Jesús, del Mar Rueda-García, María
• Format: Journal Article
• Language: English
• Published: Oxford Oxford University Press 01.08.2013
• Subjects: Adolescent; Biological and medical sciences; Child; Female; First year; Health Behavior; Health technology assessment; Humans; Kaplan-Meier Estimate; Life skills training; Male; Medical sciences; Miscellaneous; ORIGINAL ARTICLES; Preventive programmes; Program Evaluation; Public health. Hygiene; Public health. Hygiene-occupational medicine; Reproducibility of Results; School Health Services; Secondary schools; Self Report; Smoking; Smoking - epidemiology; Smoking Prevention; Spain - epidemiology; Students - psychology; Students - statistics & numerical data; Surveys and Questionnaires; Teachers; Europe; Spain; Human; Prevention; Evaluation; Tobacco; Program; Adolescent; Tobacco smoking
• ISSN: 0268-1153; 1465-3648
• DOI: 10.1093/her/cyt061

Our objective was to verify the effectiveness of a program based on the Life Skills Training approach with a greater extent than usual, not applied by teachers and a very high degree of reliability regarding the implementation of the expected content. Twenty-eight secondary schools in Granada (Spain) were randomly assigned to the intervention or control group. The students in the intervention group received 21 one-hour sessions in the first year and 12 one-hour sessions in the second year, whereas those in the control group received no health education or preventive sessions. Students completed questionnaires before and after the first year of sessions, before and after the second year, and at 1 year after the program. All five questionnaires were completed by 77% of the 1048 students initially enrolled in the study. The results suggest that the program had no preventive effects either immediately or at 1 year after its application. Application of the Life Skills Training approach does not appear to prevent the onset of smoking but may prove effective for avoiding escalation of the consumption levels of tobacco or other problematic drugs.