Four- and five-year follow-up results from four seventh-grade smoking prevention strategies

Abstract

Recent studies have suggested that a prevention program that addresses the social influences that encourage smoking can be effective in deterring cigarette use by adolescents. This study presents 4- and 5-year follow-up results from two studies which evaluated three variations of this social influences model and compared them to a health consequences program and an existing-curriculum condition. The results suggest that a seventh-grade program, built around the social influences model and taught jointly by same-age peer leaders and local classroom teachers, may reduce 4-year weekly- and daily-smoking cumulative incidence rates, providing the first evidence for any long-term effects for the social influences model. However, the results also suggest that any long-term effects from such interventions are probably limited and may depend heavily on the manner in which the social influences model is translated during the intervention. Additional follow-up studies are needed to clarify the long-term effects of these intervention programs.