School programme: A five-year programme implemented in schools across Co Leitrim in an attempt to delay or prevent children smoking has ended with more youngsters who took part experimenting with cigarettes.
An evaluation of the programme run by the North Western Health Board (NWHB) found 59 per cent of those who took part had tried smoking at the end of it compared with 55 per cent of those who did not receive the programme.
The programme, called Smoke Free Leitrim, was offered to all fourth class students in all Co Leitrim primary schools between 1996 and 2001. Some 450 children were involved.
Details of the evaluation of the programme are published in the latest issue of the Irish Medical Journal. It states that the key age for starting to smoke is nine to 12 years and a slightly higher percentage of Smoke Free Leitrim students had smoked their first cigarette by this age than the control group.
"Involvement in the programme had little effect on smoking experimentation; conversely a heightened awareness of smoking may have made participants more curious. Research suggests that smoking education programmes for young people risk having the opposite effect to the one intended," it said.
When data on the numbers in both groups who ended up smoking every day were looked at, there was no difference between the smoking levels among boys who took part in the Smoke Free Leitrim project and boys who did not.
However, among girls, the programme seems to have had a positive impact because 50 per cent fewer Smoke Free Leitrim girls ended up smoking every day than girls who did not participate in the programme.
The evaluation by the NWHB's department of public health also found that 93 per cent of students in both groups, those who took part in the programme and those who did not, believed smokers were more at risk of suffering a heart attack.
"The evaluation suggests that long-term school-based anti-smoking interventions have little impact on smoking behaviour, especially among boys. To increase the number of young people who remain smoke-free, an approach that goes beyond the school is needed. Interventions need to tackle young people's smoking in the broader context of smoking within the family and with other adults in general.
"Anti-tobacco health promotion initiatives should also relate to the cultural context of adolescent smoking and risk-taking behaviour; give meaningful involvement to young people in design and delivery of programmes; and relate to what is going on in the wider field of tobacco control," it said.