Angeli, M.; Hassandra, M.; Krommidas, C.; Morres, I.; Theodorakis, Y. Assessing the Impact of a Health Education Anti-Smoking Program for Students: A Follow-Up Investigation. Children2024, 11, 387.
Angeli, M.; Hassandra, M.; Krommidas, C.; Morres, I.; Theodorakis, Y. Assessing the Impact of a Health Education Anti-Smoking Program for Students: A Follow-Up Investigation. Children 2024, 11, 387.
Angeli, M.; Hassandra, M.; Krommidas, C.; Morres, I.; Theodorakis, Y. Assessing the Impact of a Health Education Anti-Smoking Program for Students: A Follow-Up Investigation. Children2024, 11, 387.
Angeli, M.; Hassandra, M.; Krommidas, C.; Morres, I.; Theodorakis, Y. Assessing the Impact of a Health Education Anti-Smoking Program for Students: A Follow-Up Investigation. Children 2024, 11, 387.
Abstract
In this follow-up study, we aimed to assess the effectiveness of the “I do not smoke, I exercise”, anti-smoking preventive health education program. The program was based on the Theory of Planned Behavior supplemented with life-skills teaching and targeted at high school students. The intervention comprised ten one-hour online sessions, administered by physical education instructors. The study cohort comprised 222 students (109 boys, 113 girls) from 11 secondary schools, with an average age of 16.42 ± 1.36 years. Data collection involved pre- and post-intervention self-assessment questionnaires. The examined variables included attitudes towards smoking, intention to smoke, subjective norm, perceived behavioral control (PBC), knowledge about smoking, smoking behavior, exercise behavior, attitudes toward the program's implementation, and satisfaction with the program. Separate paired samples t-test revealed a significant improvement in students' knowledge about smoking, perceived behavioral control, and overall program satisfaction following the intervention. However, no significant changes were observed in the remaining variables. These findings suggest that the health education smoking prevention intervention incorporates techniques and strategies that influence the Perceived Behavioral Control variable, emphasizing students' strong interest in educationally theorized programs integrating technology into their design. Future studies should consider further examination of tobacco control strategies within the high school context.
Keywords
adolescents; smoking; education; intervention; prevention; Theory of Planned Behavior; life-skills
Subject
Public Health and Healthcare, Health Policy and Services
Copyright:
This is an open access article distributed under the Creative Commons Attribution License which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited.
