TY - JOUR
T1 - Smoking cessation among adolescents in Europe: The role of school policy and programmes
AU - Mertens, Aukje E. J.
AU - Kunst, Anton E.
AU - Lorant, Vincent
AU - Alves, Joana
AU - Rimpelä, Arja
AU - Clancy, Luke
AU - Kuipers, Mirte A. G.
N1 - Funding Information: This work was supported by the European Commission (EC), Horizon2020 program , Call PHC 6 – 2014, under Grant Agreement n° 635056 . The EC had no role in the study design; in the collection, analysis and interpretation of data; in the writing of the report; and in the decision to submit the article for publication. Publisher Copyright: © 2021 Elsevier B.V.
PY - 2021/10/1
Y1 - 2021/10/1
N2 - Introduction: European estimates of adolescent smoking cessation are lacking and studies on the role of schools in quit behaviour are scarce. We aimed to describe smoking cessation attempts and success among adolescents in Europe and explored the association with school policy and programmes. Methods: We used cross-sectional data from the 2013 and 2016−2017 surveys of the European SILNE and SILNE-R projects. We included 4,509 12−19-year-old current or ex-smokers in 67 secondary schools in seven countries (Belgium, Germany, Finland, Ireland, Italy, the Netherlands, and Portugal). School staff reported strength of smoke-free school policies (SFSPs), proportion of grades in which anti-tobacco education was offered, and whether the school offered any form of cessation support programme. Multilevel logistic regression analysis determined school-level variation and the association of school-level and individual-level variables with self-reported and self-defined quit attempts and quit success. Results: Over three quarters (77.3%) of students reported a quit attempt and half of them (50.1%) reported quit success. Prevalence rates of quit success and quit attempts, showed relatively small variations between schools within countries. Associations of smoke-free school policy, tobacco educational programmes and cessation programmes with quit attempts and quit success could not be demonstrated with statistical significance. Quit attempts and quit success were inversely associated with alcohol use, parental smoking, and friend smoking. Conclusion: This study demonstrates that adolescence is an important time to encourage quitting and to support quit attempts. We did not find evidence for a contribution of school policies and programmes to quit behaviour of adolescent smokers.
AB - Introduction: European estimates of adolescent smoking cessation are lacking and studies on the role of schools in quit behaviour are scarce. We aimed to describe smoking cessation attempts and success among adolescents in Europe and explored the association with school policy and programmes. Methods: We used cross-sectional data from the 2013 and 2016−2017 surveys of the European SILNE and SILNE-R projects. We included 4,509 12−19-year-old current or ex-smokers in 67 secondary schools in seven countries (Belgium, Germany, Finland, Ireland, Italy, the Netherlands, and Portugal). School staff reported strength of smoke-free school policies (SFSPs), proportion of grades in which anti-tobacco education was offered, and whether the school offered any form of cessation support programme. Multilevel logistic regression analysis determined school-level variation and the association of school-level and individual-level variables with self-reported and self-defined quit attempts and quit success. Results: Over three quarters (77.3%) of students reported a quit attempt and half of them (50.1%) reported quit success. Prevalence rates of quit success and quit attempts, showed relatively small variations between schools within countries. Associations of smoke-free school policy, tobacco educational programmes and cessation programmes with quit attempts and quit success could not be demonstrated with statistical significance. Quit attempts and quit success were inversely associated with alcohol use, parental smoking, and friend smoking. Conclusion: This study demonstrates that adolescence is an important time to encourage quitting and to support quit attempts. We did not find evidence for a contribution of school policies and programmes to quit behaviour of adolescent smokers.
KW - Adolescents
KW - Education programme
KW - Policy
KW - Quitting
KW - School
KW - Smoking cessation
UR - http://www.scopus.com/inward/record.url?scp=85111483017&partnerID=8YFLogxK
U2 - https://doi.org/10.1016/j.drugalcdep.2021.108945
DO - https://doi.org/10.1016/j.drugalcdep.2021.108945
M3 - Article
C2 - 34333281
SN - 0376-8716
VL - 227
JO - Drug and alcohol dependence
JF - Drug and alcohol dependence
M1 - 108945
ER -