Skip to main page content
U.S. flag

An official website of the United States government

Dot gov

The .gov means it’s official.
Federal government websites often end in .gov or .mil. Before sharing sensitive information, make sure you’re on a federal government site.

Https

The site is secure.
The https:// ensures that you are connecting to the official website and that any information you provide is encrypted and transmitted securely.

Access keys NCBI Homepage MyNCBI Homepage Main Content Main Navigation
. 2018 Mar 7;18(1):334.
doi: 10.1186/s12889-018-5242-y.

Drug use prevention: factors associated with program implementation in Brazilian urban schools

Ana Paula Dias Pereira  1 , Zila M Sanchez  2
Affiliations

Drug use prevention: factors associated with program implementation in Brazilian urban schools

Ana Paula Dias Pereira et al. BMC Public Health. .

Abstract

Background: A school is a learning environment that contributes to the construction of personal values, beliefs, habits and lifestyles, provide convenient settings for the implementation of drug use prevention programs targeting adolescents, who are the population group at highest risk of initiating drug use. The objective of the present study was to investigate the prevalence of factors associated with implementing drug use prevention programs in Brazilian public and private middle and high urban schools.

Methods: The present population-based cross-sectional survey was conducted with a probability sample of 1151 school administrators stratified by the 5 Brazilian administrative divisions, in 2014. A close-ended, self-reported online questionnaire was used. Logistic regression analysis was used to identify factors associated with implementing drug use prevention programs in schools.

Results: A total of 51.1% of the schools had adopted drug use prevention programs. The factors associated with program implementation were as follows: belonging to the public school network; having a library; development of activities targeting sexuality; development of "Health at School Program" activities; offering extracurricular activities; and having an administrator that participated in training courses on drugs.

Conclusions: The adoption of drug use prevention practices in Brazilian schools may be expanded with greater orchestration of schools through specialized training of administrators and teachers, expansion of the School Health Program and concomitant development of the schools' structural and curricular attributes.

PubMed Disclaimer

Conflict of interest statement

Ethics approval and consent to participate

Informed consent was obtained from all individual participants included in the study.

The participants, after accessing the link available in the message, were sent to a screen with a complete informed consent and, after reading it, chose to click on “accept” or “not accept”. Participants who agreed to participate were directed to the screen of the questionnaire. The consent form and ethical research procedures were approved by the Ethics Committee of Universidade Federal de São Paulo (no. 250.091).

Consent for publication

Not applicable.

Competing interests

Dr. Sanchez is an Associated Editor at BMC Public Health.

Publisher’s Note

Springer Nature remains neutral with regard to jurisdictional claims in published maps and institutional affiliations.

Figures

Fig. 1
Fig. 1
Flowchart representing the sample of Brazilian schools that participated in the study
See this image and copyright information in PMC

References

    1. Griffin KW, Botvin GJ. Evidence-based interventions for preventing substance use disorders in adolescents. Child Adolesc Psychiatr Clin N Am. 2010;19:505–526. doi: 10.1016/j.chc.2010.03.005. - DOI - PMC - PubMed
    1. Aerts D, Alves GG, La Salvia MW, Abegg C. Health promotion: convergence between the principles of health surveillance and socially responsible schools. Cad Saude Publica. 2004;20:1020–1028. doi: 10.1590/S0102-311X2004000400017. - DOI - PubMed
    1. Caria MP, Faggiano F, Bellocco R, Galanti MR, Group E-DS Classroom characteristics and implementation of a substance use prevention curriculum in European countries. Eur J Pub Health. 2013;23:1088–1093. doi: 10.1093/eurpub/cks191. - DOI - PubMed
    1. Spoth R, Trudeau L, Redmond C, Shin C. Replication RCT of early universal prevention effects on young adult substance misuse. J Consult Clin Psychol. 2014;82:949–963. doi: 10.1037/a0036840. - DOI - PMC - PubMed
    1. Hopfer S, Davis D, Kam JA, Shin Y, Elek E, Hecht ML. A review of elementary school-based substance use prevention programs: identifying program attributes. J Drug Educ. 2010;40:11–36. doi: 10.2190/DE.40.1.b. - DOI - PubMed

Publication types