Intervention on smoking in adolescents in Sousse, Tunisia

Purpose. - To increase knowledge about smoking via a school prevention programme. Patients and methods. - This quasi-experimental study included two groups: a control and an intervention group with a pre- and a post-evaluation of knowledge about smoking in each group. The target population consisted of students of 12 to 16 years old in Sousse, Tunisia. To evaluate the intervention, stratified and proportional sampling was used to include 2100 students in the questionnaire. All the students in the intervention group received a standardized program of information about smoking. A pre-tested and self-managed questionnaire in Arabic was used to assess knowledge about smoking, attitudes and behavioural intent before and after the intervention. Results. - The intervention group's post-test knowledge and behavioural intent were significantly higher than that of the control group's. No significant differences were found in post-test attitudes between the control and the intervention groups. Conclusion. - The authors carried out this survey to evaluate the difficulties and resources in order to institute a more complete and durable program. (C) 2009 Elsevier Masson SAS. All rights reserved.