title: Ill Effects of Smoking: Baseline Knowledge among School Children and Implementation of the "AntE Tobacco" Project.
abstract: Introduction. Cigarette smoking contributes to the deaths of more than 400,000 Americans annually. Each day >3,000 children and adolescents become regular smokers. This paper details a new antitobacco educational program titled "AntE Tobacco" Method. Children in grades 1-3 were administered a 10-item questionnaire to ascertain their baseline knowledge about the ill effects of smoking, shown an educational cartoon video depicting the ill effects of tobacco, and given a story book based on the video. At the end of video, children were administered a questionnaire to determine short-term recall of the antitobacco educational objectives of the program. Four to 6 weeks later, the children were then administered a follow-up survey to determine long-term retention of the anti tobacco educational program. Result. Eighty two percent of the children answered the outcome questions correctly immediately following the video. At follow-up, 4-6 weeks later, 83% of children answered all questions correctly. Conclusion. The anti tobacco education program used in this study effectively conveyed most of the educational objectives. The results of this study indicate that a multimedia (i.e., video and book) educational program can be used to educate and reinforce anti tobacco messages. This program may be very useful as a part of a comprehensive anti tobacco curriculum in school systems.
authors.affiliation: Pulmonary, Critical Care and Sleep Medicine, Department of Medicine, Baylor College of Medicine Houston and Texas A&M University, 613 Elizabeth Street, Suite 813, Corpus Christi, TX 78404, USA.
authors.forename: Salim
authors.initials: S
authors.lastname: Surani
authors.forename: Raghu
authors.initials: R
authors.lastname: Reddy
authors.forename: Amy E
authors.initials: AE
authors.lastname: Houlihan
authors.forename: Brenda
authors.initials: B
authors.lastname: Parrish
authors.forename: Gina L
authors.initials: GL
authors.lastname: Evans-Hudnall
authors.forename: Kalpalatha
authors.initials: K
authors.lastname: Guntupalli