Assessment of tobacco control advocacy behavioural capacity among students at schools of public health in China.
OBJECTIVE
To evaluate student tobacco control advocacy behavioural capacity using longitudinal trace data.


METHODS
A tobacco control advocacy curriculum was developed and implemented at schools of public health (SPH) or departments of public health in seven universities in China. Participants comprised undergraduate students studying the public health curriculum in these 13 Universities. A standardised assessment tool was used to evaluate their tobacco control advocacy behavioural capacity. Repeated measures analysis of variance, paired t tests and paired χ² tests were used to determine differences between dependent variables across time. Multivariate analysis of variance (MANOVA) and multivariate logistic regression were used to assess treatment effects between intervention and control sites.


RESULTS
Respective totals of 426 students in the intervention group and 338 in the control group were available for the evaluation. Approximately 90% of respondents were aged 21 years or older and 56% were women. Findings show that the capacity building program significantly improved public health student advocacy behavioural capacity, including advocacy attitude, interest, motivation and anti-secondhand smoke behaviours. The curriculum did not impact student smoking behaviour.


CONCLUSIONS
This study provides sufficient evidence to support the implementation of tobacco control advocacy training at Chinese schools of public health.
Yang
Tingzhong
T
School of Medicine Zijinggang Campus of Zhejiang University, Hangzhou 310058, China. ytingzhongyang@yahoo.com
Abdullah
Abu S
AS
Rockett
Ian R H
IR
Li
Mu
M
Zhou
Yuhua
Y
Ma
Jun
J
Ji
Huaping
H
Zheng
Jianzhong
J
Zhang
Yuhong
Y
Wang
Liming
L
D000328:Adult; D000704:Analysis of Variance; D001291:Attitude of Health Personnel; D057191:Capacity Building / Q000379:methods*; D016009:Chi-Square Distribution; D002681:China; D003254:Consumer Advocacy; D003479:Curriculum; D005260:Female; D006801:Humans; D016015:Logistic Models; D008137:Longitudinal Studies; D008297:Male; D009042:Motivation; D015999:Multivariate Analysis; D011361:Professional Competence; D011634:Public Health / Q000193:education*; D012581:Schools, Public Health; D000074606:Smoking Prevention; D013334:Students; D055815:Young Adult