| Summary: | Background
Tobacco use is one of the biggest public health
threats the world has ever faced. Tunisia is one of the countries suffering
from the heavy burden of tobacco use. It
is in this context that the Chronic Disease Prevention Research Center in Sousse
established a school based intervention for tobacco control and prevention. Our objective was to evaluate the
feasibility and effectiveness of our intervention in tobacco control and
prevention by the evaluation of smoking behavior among schoolchildren at pre
and post assessment in both intervention and control groups.
Methods
We conducted a three years school based quasi-experimental
study with an intervention and a control groups. We enrolled a representative
sample of schoolchildren from all colleges of intervention and control areas. We
have carried out a pre-assessment before the intervention in 2009-2010 and a
post assessment of the same parameters at the end of the intervention in both
groups in 2013-2014. We used a pre tested self
administered questionnaire to assess tobacco use.
Results
Overall, 4003
schoolchildren were included: 1929 in the intervention group and 2074 in the
control group. After the intervention, 4275 schoolchildren participated in the
evaluation with respectively 2170 and 2105 in each group. The age of the
schoolchildren varied between 11 and 16 years. There was a
decrease in tobacco use in the intervention group from 5.7% to 4.8% contrary to
an increase in the control group from 7.5% to 9.2%. Among boys, the prevalence
of tobacco use decreased in both groups. However, among girls, in the
intervention group a decrease was noticed in the contrary to the control group
where a significant increase was observed from 1.1% to 5.2%.
Conclusions
Tobacco prevention needs multi-sectored approach and an extended intervention to be
effective. That's why a political will is important for such interventions.
|
|---|