Abstract
Background and aim | Tobacco smoking is one of the most common risk behaviours among adolescents. One form of prevention may be school-based prevention programmes quality of which may be controlled by evaluation research.
This article presents formative evaluation of school-based smoking prevention programme "Típni to I" which is designed for the 7th grade students. Method | Research design of the evaluation was mixed (quantiative-qualitative).
Short-term impact of the prevention programme was assessed according to KAB model (knowledge, attitudes and behaviour) implementing pre-post design using questionnaires as data collection method. Questionnaires were assigned twice, shortly before the programme implementation and then 2-3 weeks after realization of the prevention.
Need assessment utilized content analysis of data from questionnaires, semi- structured interviews with experienced programme lecturers and available prevention materials. Sample | Six schools (12 classes) from Czech Republic (N=202) participated in the outcome evaluation and two experienced programme lecturers provided in-depth interviews.
Results | Analysis showed changes in tobacco risks knowledge, communication skills to refuse cigarettes, decrease of intention to smoke water pipe (p=0,001) and strengthening positive attitudes toward smoking ban in restaurants (p=0,012). Programme was ineffective in strengthening negative attitudes towards cigarettes smoking (p=0,150) and in decreasing tendency to smoke cigarettes (p=0,420).
Further content analysis describes in detail the strengths and weaknesses of the evaluated programme and specific needs of the target group (eg. topic of stress management, peer influence). Conclusion | Despite the fact that this was not a randomized control trial, this evaluation offers suggestions for improving school-based smoking prevention programmes.