The purposes of this study were to explore prevalence of smoking, source of cigarettes smoking behavior of their families and friends, and effects of a tobacco educational intervention on the knowledge of tobacco hazards, attitudes toward smoking, and self-efficacy among elementary school students in aboriginal area.
The subjects were 796 fifth- to sixth-grade students from 32 schools in aboriginal area in Nantou as the population of this study. The data was collected via a self-administrated questionnaire and was completed over the period from June to July, 2007. According to the result, the smoking rate among the students was 34.7%, which was higher than regular students in the same age. There were 40.8% and 23.7% of them whose father and both parents smoked, and the major sources of cigarettes were from classmates or friends approximately 36.4%.
Additionally, the tools of tobacco control educational intervention were developed by Bureau of Health Promotion. Total number of valid subject of the intervention was 228 and distributed the students into experimental groups (health promoting and non-health promoting school) and control group. In order to compare the effectiveness of the intervention, pro-test was administrated in one month after the program.
In conclusion, smoking behavior of parents and peers and knowledge of tobacco hazards were the important factors which influence smoking behavior among the aboriginal students in this study; however, the intervention could significantly increase the knowledge and attitudes toward smoking among the experimental groups compared with the control groups in terms of immediate effect which result in reduction of smoking. Therefore, the interventional program obviously increased the effectiveness of health education. Last but not least, it was suggested that government should design curriculum to assist fifth- to sixth-grade aboriginal students to resist smoking pressures and avoid smoking behavior immdiately.
