What the evidence says.

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

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.

A New Zealand Survey, 2010

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

KKS was a 4 year project run by the Centre for Tobacco Control Research, Auckland University, involving surveys and community intervention at 4 South Auckland intermediate schools: Weymouth, Manurewa, Kedgley and Papatoetoe. The aim of the project was to reduce uptake of smoking by 11-13 year olds by influencing the smoking behaviour of their parents. Schools with high Māori and Pacific Island communities were targeted.
The community intervention comprised:

• A free DVD providing information on communicating with kids on smokefree issues
• Free smoking cessation support and subsidised treatment for smokers in the whānau
• Smokefree themed events for the whole whānau put on at school
• Engagement of students in smokefree activities and discussion eg. art competitions
• Controlled purchase operations at local tobacco retailer

Keeping Kids Smokefree Website

Keeping Kids Smokefree: lessons learned on community participation

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).

Association of parent and best friend smoking with stage of adolescent tobacco smoking

This study published in the New Zealand Medical Journal in November 2010, compares the effect of parental and best friend smoking across the stages of
adolescent smoking, from being a never smoker susceptible to smoking, to being a daily smoker.

Keeping Kids Smokefree Rationale

Keeping Kids Smokefree: Rationale, Design, and Implementation of a Community, School, and Family-Based Intervention to Modify Behaviors Related to Smoking Among Māori and Pacific Island Children in New Zealand
Marewa Glover, Robert Scragg, Vili Nosa , Chris Bullen , Judith McCool , Anette Kira  (University of Auckland, New Zealand)
Abstract:
Despite a concerted, sustained and comprehensive tobacco control effort, smoking is prevalent among young people in New Zealand, particularly for Māori and Pacific Island teenagers. Many took up smoking in their pre-teen years. New Zealand research has shown that daily smoking by children aged 14-15 years is strongly influenced by parental smoking. The Keeping Kids Smokefree study is investigating whether changing parental smoking behavior and attitudes via a community-partnership approach with parents, schools, and local health providers can reduce smoking initiation by 11-12 year olds. It is a quasi-experimental trial involving four schools in an urban area of high social deprivation with large numbers of Māori and Pacific Islands families. Schools were allocated to intervention or control and the intervention was developed through a process of engagement with the schools, parents of children and local healthcare organizations. This article describes the rationale, context, methodology and methods involved in establishing the study. Building Māori and Pacific Islander research capacity was a secondary objective of the study.

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).

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

Centre for Tobacco Control Research

The Centre for Tobacco Control Research (CTCR) is dedicated to tobacco control research in New Zealand that:

• strengthens tobacco control research capacity and expertise particularly for Māori and Pacific communities
• conducts relevant research to establish which interventions are the most effective for reducing the harm caused by tobacco
• disseminates research and shares information at appropriate hui and fora
• supports the implementation of the tobacco control research strategy.

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