The impact of education program on smoking prevention: An intervention study among 16 to 18 years old in Palestine

Abstract

The use of tobacco is a growing public health problem in Palestine. School-based smoking prevention programs are effective in increasing knowledge of health-related aspects of smoking. The study assessed the effects of health education intervention on knowledge of tobacco consumption among high school students, in Tarqumia, Palestine. This is an intervention study to evaluate the effectiveness of an educational program on smoking. The study was in 3 stages: pre-intervention, intervention and post-intervention. At the pre-intervention phase, 240 male and female students were selected in both of the intervention and control groups by stratified sampling technique. Anonymous self-administered questionnaire was used for data collection. The findings indicated no significant differences between the intervention and control groups in terms of mean knowledge score of health-related aspects of smoking (p = 0.807) before the intervention. However, there was a significant difference (p<0.001) between the intervention and control groups. There was no significant difference between male and female students in both the intervention and control groups at post-test. The study demonstrated that health education is effective in increasing smoking knowledge. It is recommended that continuous community-based and school-based health education program on smoking should be implemented by health professionals. © Asian Network for Scientific Information, 2013.