title: Knowledge, attitudes and beliefs about tobacco use after an educative intervention in health sciences' students.
abstract: OBJECTIVE
  To examine the effectiveness of a tobacco control course on the improvement of knowledge, attitudes and beliefs about smoking among health sciences' students.
  
  
  METHODS
  This was a quasi-experimental study of community intervention carried out during the years 2005-2008, at 2 university health science centres in northwest Spain. A total of 290 students on the intervention and 256 on the control campus took part in the study. The intervention consisted of a course on the prevention and control of tobacco use offered only on the intervention campus. Data were collected before the intervention and 6 months afterwards.
  
  
  RESULTS
  After the course, significant differences between groups were observed in the improvement of knowledge, attitudes and perceived ability to act in tobacco control.
  
  
  CONCLUSIONS
  The introduction of training concerning smoking through active methodologies had a positive impact on the knowledge, attitudes and beliefs about tobacco of students.
authors.affiliation: Area of Preventive Medicine and Public Health, Institute of Biomedicine, University of León, León, Spain. ajmolt@unileon.es
authors.forename: Antonio J
authors.initials: AJ
authors.lastname: Molina
authors.forename: Tania
authors.initials: T
authors.lastname: Fernández
authors.forename: Daniel
authors.initials: D
authors.lastname: Fernández
authors.forename: Miguel
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Delgado
authors.forename: Serafín
authors.initials: S
authors.lastname: de Abajo
authors.forename: Vicente
authors.initials: V
authors.lastname: Martín
mesh_terms: D000293:Adolescent; D005260:Female; D005500:Follow-Up Studies; D007722:Health Knowledge, Attitudes, Practice; D006281:Health Occupations / Q000193:education*; D006801:Humans; D008297:Male; D012907:Smoking / Q000523:psychology; D000074606:Smoking Prevention; D013030:Spain; D013336:Students, Health Occupations / Q000523:psychology*; D055815:Young Adult