Tobacco use among Mauritian adolescents has increased steadily since 2008. Currently, Mauritius has not implemented any school-based anti-tobacco program and there is no instrument to assess the effectiveness of existing anti-tobacco school policies. Since the first cigarette can rapidly lead to nicotine dependence, targeted interventions must be assessed before established patterns of smoking appear. This study evaluated a tobacco use prevention education instrument to determine the effectiveness of a school-based anti-tobacco program. 26 male students completed a survey before and after receiving anti-tobacco lessons. Smoking initiation age could not predict likelihood of tobacco addiction (r(12)=0.320, p=0.311). However, after receiving the anti-tobacco lessons, participants were less likely to believe that youth who smoke have more friends (p < 0.001) and were more knowledgeable about tobacco’s dangers (t(25)=3.94, p=0.001). This indicated that, with a few changes, the instrument can be used to assess the implementation of a school-based anti-tobacco program in Mauritius.
| Identifer | oai:union.ndltd.org:MSSTATE/oai:scholarsjunction.msstate.edu:td-3625 |
| Date | 14 December 2018 |
| Creators | Hussenbocus, Shariah |
| Publisher | Scholars Junction |
| Source Sets | Mississippi State University |
| Detected Language | English |
| Type | text |
| Format | application/pdf |
| Source | Theses and Dissertations |
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