Drug Education News

Reuters:

Getting the cool kids to talk to their peers about the dangers of smoking cut the number of young people who started using cigarettes in one study by nearly 25 percent, researchers said on Friday.

The study published in the journal Lancet took a different approach than most tobacco cessation programmes aimed at youths by asking students to nominate others they viewed as influential or leaders to spread the anti-smoking message.

This peer selection proved more effective than conventional programmes and greatly reduced the number of students likely to start smoking, the researchers said.

It’s good to know that peer pressure works both ways.

More on the research here:

Smoking is the largest single cause of preventable illness in the UK, but whilst adult smoking prevalence has been falling, smoking amongst teenagers has risen over the last decade. Much money, time and effort is spent on anti-smoking programmes in UK schools, yet there is no rigorous evidence to support the effectiveness of any of these programmes.

This project evaluated a different approach, which was not classroom-based or teacher-delivered. Instead, peer-nominated students in Year 8 (aged 12-13) were recruited as ‘peer supporters’ and given intensive training off the school premises by professional health promotion staff. The peer supporters were trained to intervene informally with their Year 8 peers in everyday situations to discourage them from smoking (Audrey et al., 2004).