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Classroom antismoking messages aren't enough

Respiratory Care Weekly, August 10, 2006

Today, about 70% of U.S. middle school students and 50% of U.S. high school students receive tobacco prevention education in the classroom. Yet according to a review of studies in July's The Cochrane Library, classes covering the dangers of smoking aren't necessarily preventing teens from lighting up. Instead, social intervention programs-which helped students discuss ways to say no to smoking and make public commitments to not smoke-seemed to be more effective.

The retrospective review examined 23 studies that researchers deemed high quality, meaning that a study measured whether the students were nonsmokers before and immediately after the intervention program, as well as six months and two years later. The majority of these studies took place in the United States, the rest in Canada, the Netherlands, and the United Kingdom, reported The Cochrane Library.

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