The 13th World Conference on Tobacco OR Health

Objective: The primary goal of this evidence-based project was to develop, implement and evaluate an Appalachian-sensitive, school-based spit tobacco prevention program for middle-school students and their families.

Methods: Due to the lack of spit tobacco programs that focus on the needs of children growing up in rural Appalachian communities, we developed and implemented a new, 5 week ( 45 minutes per session) spit tobacco prevention program. The school-based program included: hands-on experiments; games; role play; demonstrations; models; two brief videos and weekly rewards/incentives. In addition, we developed an interactive teaching CD-ROM that the students took home and watched with their parents/family. Pretest and posttest data were collected using the 'Ohio Youth Spit Tobacco Survey' (2004 Revised OYTS) which measured risky behaviors, attitudes, and knowledge related to spit tobacco. Program evaluation data was also collected.

Results: Statistical findings (paired-t ; independent t-tests; one way ANOVA; Cronbach's alpha) revealed that for our sample ( N=660) students' ATTITUDE toward spit tobacco use changed significantly (p=.001) after the program ( an increase in negative attitudes) and KNOWLEDGE LEVEL significantly increased (p=.000 for the 5th and 6th graders) after participating in our 5 week spit tobacco prevention program. Longitudinal follow-up surveys are currently being conducted in the three Appalachian school districts.