The 13th World Conference on Tobacco OR Health

Objective: In the Czech Republic the absence of the specific intervention targeted on children aged 6 to 11 was strongly perceived. To cover this age category, the new programme "Non-smoking is a Norm" has been created.

Methods: Five lecture intervention has been prepared. The toll squirrel Věrka presents the main rules of the healthy life style to the children. The figures of Tooth, Heart, Lung-brothers and Cigarette Retka help children to understand the damaging effect of smoking. The effectiveness was evaluated by using a structural inteview with children in experimental groups and controll groups (without the intervention). The oral questions were combined with childrens picture expressions. Data were assessed by the EPI INFO statistic programme.

Results: The preliminary results were obtained from the first period of the pilot study. During the intervention the knowledge about risk of smoking, sun-bathing and poor nutrition have significantly risen. The programme also positively influenced some changes in children attitudes to smoking. Children whose parents smoke have more often the better relationship to smoking. About 10% of 6 years-old children reported they manipulated with cigarettes at home.

Conclusions: Our results have confirmed that the adequate primary prevention of smoking must be oriented even on the very young children and that the effects of intervention can be evaluated in the conrolled study.

The study is supported by the Prague League Against Cancer and the grant MSM 0021622421, Ministry of Education Czech Republic.