Learning Objectives: Discuss the relationship between tobacco use prevention education and cigarette smoking uptake among a cohort of Florida youth.
Abstract: The Florida Tobacco Control Program (TCP) is aimed mainly at youth between 12 and 17 years old. Since the TCP began, the University of Miami (UM) has been involved in assessing the impact of the Program and its components. One way this has been done is through the Florida Youth Cohort Study (FYCS), through which UM has tracked a Florida-wide cohort of approximately 1200 youth since 1999. At baseline, participants were in grades four through seven. The FYCS has collected much information on the tobacco-related knowledge, attitudes, and behaviors (KAB) among these children. At the same time, the study has gauged participant exposure to the various components of the TCP, in an effort to relate differences/changes in exposure to differences/changes in KAB. In April, we will go into the field for the fourth round of the study; participants will be in grades seven through ten.
This presentation will focus on the relationship between KAB, and reported exposure to school-based tobacco use prevention education (TUPE), one of the primary components of the TCP. Since the goal of such curricula is prevention of smoking among youth, we will focus on the relationship between exposure to TUPE, and smoking uptake. Preliminary analyses demonstrated no relationship between reported exposure to TUPE at baseline, and smoking uptake at initial follow-up. However, we will examine this information across all data collection rounds. Conference attendees will use the results of these analyses to consider the value of implementing TUPE in classrooms in their respective states.
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