Smoking Prevention and Anti-Smoking Education in School

Jang, Hyung Suk; Kim, Hyun Choel; Shim, Kyung Seon; Jeon, Sang Nam; Kim, Eun Kyong

Abstract

BACKGROUND: Smoking prevention and anti-smoking education in schools must be designed and planned according to age and sex as well as the type of schools and their smoking status. But the current education programs do not consider these factors. This study, therefore, aims to evaluate the actual status of the smoking prevention and anti-smoking education in Korea and to find present recommendations for an effective and, systematic education.
METHODS
We surveyed 15,310 teen-age students attending middle schools and high schools in such cities as Seoul, Incheon, Bucheon, Mokpo, and Pohang and smaller areas in the vicinity of these cities from June 1 to 15, 2005. Self-survey was done by the health education teacher of each school. It contained questions about the general disposition of respondents, their smoking habits, and awareness programs on prevention and cessation of smoking. We used SPSS 12.0 for chi-square-test to analyze the collected data.
RESULTS
The most prevailing form of anti-smoking education was "video". Most of the students surveyed said that the fourth or fifth grade of elementary school will be a good starting point for anti-smoking education. Only 39.6% of students who were educated by the current smoking prevention and anti-smoking program answered that it was "helpful" and 29.6% was "satisfied". Higher percentage of middle school students said that they either tried to quit smoking ('pre-contemplation') or had no intention of doing it ('termination-fail') after having been involved in the anti-smoking education program, while high school students turned out to be more oriented towards 'contemplation' and 'termination-success'.
CONCLUSION
Some students were found to begin smoking even at an early grade in elementary school. Most adolescents knew about the danger of smoking, but current smokers had a low educational satisfaction. The real target of such education programs, however, should be focused on higher grade students in elementary schools and middle school students, because data show that smoking rate increases explosively among these students.