Current Research

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Teachers' Say about Smoking - A New Zealand Survey, 2010

This report presents the results of a national random postal survey of NZ teachers exploring their smoking-related attitudes and behaviour

The primary purpose of this research was to identify teachers’ attitudes to smokefree issues such as:

• the impact of the Smoke-free Environments Amendment Act 2003 on teachers,
• their schools’ compliance with it, and,
• teaching young people about smoking, both directly and indirectly.

The research also sought to compare the knowledge, attitudes and behaviour of teachers who did not smoke with those who did.

Download Teachers' Say about Smoking ( 2.76 MB).

Northland DHB - Smokefree Schools Approach

Smokefree Schools Approach (SFSA) was a two-year collaborative pilot between Northland DHB Smokefree and Health Promoting Schools (HPS), Cancer Society Northland and Manaia PHO that commenced in 2007.

The SFSA uses a whole school (Health Promoting Schools) approach which is a way of thinking and working that is adopted by the whole school. This process empowers school communities with the knowledge, skills and ability to identify their individual smokefree issues and enables them to create a supportive, caring and sustainable smokefree environment for students, staff and families according to their individual needs.

The aim of SFSA were to create a safe, supportive and sustainable smokefree school environment:

• reducing smoking uptake
• providing support to those students that smoke to become smokefree
• promoting asmokefree lifestyle and culture as the norm.

Download Smokefree Schools Approach ( 223Kb).

Keeping Kids Smokefree

Keeping Kids Smokefree: lessons learned on community participation

N Charlier, M. Glover and J Robertson

Abstract

Community participation in program decisionmaking and implementation is an ideal that community and academic stakeholders aspire to in participatory research. This ideal, however, can be difficult to achieve.

We describe lessons learned about community participation from a quasi-experimental trial aimed at reducing the uptake of smoking among pre-adolescents in a community with a high percentage of Māori and Pacific Island people. The intervention involves students, parents, school teachers and management, extended families and members of the wider community. A total of approximately 4000 students (and their parents) of four urban Auckland schools were enrolled in the study over three years. The intervention is carried out through collaborations between public health professionals, academic institutions and school personnel.

In order to enhance community participation, we conclude that:

1. time commitment is needed to establish long-term ongoing relationships through face-to-face communication
2. research team members should ideally share similar cultural and ethnic backgrounds to the target audience and have in-depth understanding of and experience in the community milieu
3. collaborative partnerships between academic institutions and public health services are necessary to create strength and cohesion, and assist with clear articulation of the research project mission and objectives.

Download Keeping Kids Smokefree: lessons learned on community participation ( 78Kb).

School Policy Research

School smoking policy characteristics and individual perceptions of the school tobacco context: are they linked to students' smoking status?

Catherine M Sabiston, Chris Y Lovato, Rashid Ahmed, Allison W Pullman, Valerie Hadd, H Sharon Campbell, Candace Nykiforuk and K Stephen Brown

Abstract

The purpose of this study was to explore individual- and school-level policy characteristics on student smoking behaviour using an ecological perspective. Participants were 24,213 (51 percent female) Grade 10-11 students from 81 schools in five Canadian provinces. Data were collected using student self-report surveys, written policies collected from schools, interviews with school administrators, and school property observations to assess multiple dimensions of the school tobacco policy.

The multi-level modeling results revealed that the school a student attended was associated with his/her smoking behavior. Individual-level variables that were associated with student smoking included:

• lower school connectedness
• a greater number of family and friends who smoked
• higher perceptions of student smoking prevalence
• lower perceptions of student smoking frequency
• stronger perceptions of the school tobacco context.

School-level variables associated with student smoking included:

• weaker policy intention indicating prohibition and assistance to overcome tobacco addiction
• weaker policy implementation involving strategies for enforcement
• a higher number of students smoking on school property.

These findings suggest that the school environment is important to tobacco control strategies, and that various policy dimensions have unique relationships to student smoking. School tobacco policies should be part of a comprehensive approach to adolescent tobacco use.

Download School Smoking Policy Characteristics and Individual Perceptions of the School Tobacco Context: Are They Linked to Students' Smoking Status? ( 320Kb).

Action on Smoking and Health (ASH) Year 10 Survey

The Action on Smoking and Health (ASH) Year 10 Survey has been conducted annually since 1997. The survey asks over 25,000 Year 10 students from around New Zealand about their smoking prevalence and attitudes toward smoking. This long running survey presents an annual snapshot of tobacco trends amongst Kiwi youth, including analysis by DHB region, ethnicity and gender.

Download the ASH Year 10 Snapshot Survey 2008

Framework for Reducing Smoking Initiation in Aotearoa-New Zealand

In early 2004 the Health Sponsorship Council, with support from the Cancer Society, Apaarangi Tautoko Auahi Kore (now known as Te Reo Marama) and the Smokefree Coalition, sought and attained funding from the Ministry of Health to develop a national Framework for Reducing Smoking Initiation. The framework proposes a comprehensive suite of interventions and initiatives to reduce smoking initiation in Aotearoa-New Zealand.

Download The Framework for Reducing Smoking Initiation ( 2Mb).

Reducing Smoking Initiation Literature Review

An expert advisory group was established and oversaw the development of a literature review of the evidence around effective interventions for reducing smoking initiation. From this a framework to reduce smoking initiation in Aotearoa-New Zealand was established, setting out practical actions for implementation.

Download The Reducing Smoking Initiation Literature Review ( 2Mb).

School-based Tobacco Control Programming and Student Smoking Behaviour

This study examined the association of a school-based tobacco-control programme with students' smoking behaviour. The strongest predictors of smoking behaviour were having friends or close family members who smoke. This preliminary evidence suggests that programs and policies associated with banning smoking and enforcing smoking restrictions at school may be insufficient unless they also address the influence of smoking peers and family members and link to comprehensive programming within the broader context of other community and policy level interventions.

Download School-based Tobacco Control Programming and Student Smoking Behaviour ( 136Kb).

Density of Tobacco Retailers Near Schools: Effects on Tobacco Use Among Students

This study examined the relationship between students' tobacco use and the density and proximity of tobacco retailers near their schools. The results support the plausibility of reducing rates of students' experimental smoking, but not established smoking, by restricting their access to commercial sources of tobacco in urban areas.

Download Density of Tobacco Retailers Near Schools: Effects on Tobacco Use Among Students ( 513Kb).