PURPOSE
This study was done to examine the effects of a smoking prevention program on primary school students.
METHOD
The design for this study was a nonequivalent quasi-experimental control group pretest-posttest. The smoking prevention program was provided to grade 5 and 6 students selected from two schools in Jecheon.The experimental group consisted of 72 students and the control group, 73 students. A smoking prevention program composed of smoking prevention education (once a week for 40 minutes over a period of 8 weeks) and supportive environment for smoking prevention was developed by modifying several smoking prevention programs. The research was conducted from May 15 to October 10, 2003.
RESULT
1) After completion of the smoking prevention program, the mean scores for knowledge about smoking, attitude to smoking, and intention toward non-smoking were not significantly different between the experimental group and the control group.
CONCLUSIONS
To affectively achieve the aims of a smoking prevention program, the effectiveness of the program should not be measured over the short term only. Long-term tracking of students educated in the program, to identify the rate of those who later become smokers needs to be done.
