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Poster presentation:
Raising tobacco awareness: lessons from a class teacher delivered programme
Susan MacAskill
Abstract
Most smokers take up smoking as teenagers, and children are aware of cigarettes at an early age. The South Ayrshire Schools Tobacco Awareness Project aimed to raise awareness of issues surrounding tobacco use amongst young people, contributing to a positive choice not to smoke. The main objective was repeated exposure to child-focussed tobacco awareness education in Primary 6 and 7 (10 and 11 years old).
This innovative classroom intervention was delivered by Class Teachers, supported by the Project Co-ordinator, and used a carefully piloted Tobacco Awareness Resource Pack which addressed knowledge, attitudes and behavioural issues. Implementation took place in Spring/Summer terms over two years. A comprehensive impact and process evaluation undertaken by CTCR incorporated 'before/after' school-based surveys (n=915) and qualitative interviews at three stages with pupils (22 focus groups) and teachers (14 interviews).
Recall was at an encouragingly high level, and process evaluation suggests pupils felt they had learned new information and that the experience had been generally enjoyable. Attitudes to smoking were robustly negative but important gaps in knowledge of detailed health impacts were identified and addressed. Although most pupils indicated that the Programme would discourage smoking, reported smoking rates increased slightly whilst remaining at a low level. The Programme was perceived to enable more structured education in tobacco related issues than before. The teacher delivery model was low cost and benefited from good staff-pupil relationships. However, findings indicated considerable variation in programme fidelity, especially year two, despite the Co-ordinator function.
Study findings will be discussed in the context of issues of programme delivery.
Biography
Susan MacAskill is a Senior Researcher at the Cancer Research UK Centre for Tobacco Control Research at the University of Stirling and the Open University. Susan has extensive experience in researching tobacco control and smoking cessation issues, including in disadvantaged and hard to reach communities. Wider research interests include exploration and evaluation of interventions addressing health and social issues, from a range of perspectives, including the key target group, intervention providers and other relevant stakeholders.
Author 1: Susan MacAskill
Senior Researcher
CR UK Centre for Tobacco Control Research
University of Stirling and Open University
Stirling
FK9 4LA
Author 2: Laura McDermott
Author 3: Michelle Hunt
Tobacco Network Co-ordinator
Fresh Air-shire
NHS Ayrshire & Arran
e-mail: huntm@aapct.scot.nhs.uk
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