Brief counselling on smoking prevention in 8º to 10º year of Secondary School in Zaragoza

Authors report a community school study about smoking adolescent behaviour, 8º, 9º, and 10 º year in Zaragoza (Spain). The study was implemented in the 2006-2007 and 20072008 courses respectively. The study’s objectives were to asses the effectiveness of smoking counselling with the aid of a specifically designed leaflet. The study also included an evaluation of expired CO. The authors surveyed on smoking behaviour as well as on personal details of the students.

The study includes 8 intervention schools and 7 control schools. Allocation wasn’t randomized due to logistic reasons. The interventional group received advice against smoking by means of spoken counsel from a professional supported by a leaflet. The control group only received the spoken counsel. The expired CO was assessed in each group. The counsel was repeated in each group one year later to the same students.

In all 1,720 students were assessed: 51.95% men and 48.5% women. The median age of the students was 14.6 years SD: 1.36. The authors found that 19.7% of the students were smokers. The distribution of smokers by sex was 24.7% of women versus 15.3% of men X2 = 24.1 p < 0.0001. Smoking behaviour between interventional or control group wasn’t statistically different.

Conclusions: There wasn’t any evidence of effectiveness in using a leaflet added to the spoken counsel. Prevalence of smoking was very high: 19.7% among adolescents of Zaragoza. The study shows a increase of smoking between 8º and 10º.