‘No Smoking Class’ competitions in Finland: their value in delaying the onset of smoking in adolescence

Open Access
Publisher Website
Google Scholar
Abstract
‘No Smoking Class’ competitions have been organized annually in Finland for eighth grade pupils since the school year 1989–1990. Each school class has together to decide if they want to be a no smoking class for the next half a year from fall to spring. Classes decide about participating in the contest and controlled non-smoking during the competition; and classes where all the pupils are able to refrain from smoking for the duration of the competition participate in a lottery. The lottery prizes consist of four main prizes, each of 10000 FIM (US$ 2000) and ten second prizes, each of 1000 FIM (US$ 200). Each year, 20000–30000 pupils have participated in the competition. The evaluation of the program was carried out in the school year 1991–1992 with a follow-up survey in 1993. For the evaluation, 97 classes were randomly selected from participating and non-participating classes. In 28 classes all the pupils were able to remain non-smokers during the competition, 39 dropped out from the competition because there were smokers in the class and 30 classes were control classes, which did not participate in the competition. Pupils filled in a survey questionnaire on three occasions: before the competition, and 1 month after and 1 year after the competition. In the eighth grade, smoking increased less in the classes which participated in the competition than in classes which dropped out or were not participating in the competition. In the ninth grade, the onset rate was similar in all groups of classes.

This publication has 0 references indexed in Scilit: