PhD Scientific Days 2025

Poster Session II. - O: Health Sciences

Improving Awareness of Smoking Consequences in Adolescents: Evaluation of the Balassagyarmat Health Education Program

Name of the presenter

Árva Dorottya

Institute/workplace of the presenter

Semmelweis University, Faculty of Medicine, Institute of Preventive Medicine and Public Health

Authors

Dorottya Árva^1,2, David Major¹, Luca Sudár¹, Zsuzsa Rákosy^2,3,4, Vince Fazekas-Pongor¹, Ádám Gyula Tabák^1,5, András Terebessy¹

1: Semmelweis University, Faculty of Medicine, Institute of Preventive Medicine and Public Health
2: MTA-PTE Innovative Health Pedagogy Research Group
3: Bethesda Children’s Hospital
4: University of Pécs, Medical School, Department of Public Health Medicine
5: Semmelweis University, Faculty of Medicine, Department of Internal Medicine and Oncology

Text of the abstract

Introduction
Adolescents' smoking and nicotine use remain growing public health concerns. School-based peer health education is a widely used approach to prevent substance use, and universal interventions are designed to benefit all students equally. The Balassagyarmat Health Education Program (BEP) was one such initiative, featuring a dedicated module on smoking.
Aims
To evaluate the effectiveness of the BEP in improving students’ knowledge of the health consequences of smoking.
Methods
Implemented between 2018–2021, the BEP targeted all 9th-grade students in a Hungarian city of a disadvantaged region. As near-peer educators, medical students from Semmelweis University delivered lessons on various health topics, including smoking. Lessons used experiential learning and focused on increasing students’ Capability, Opportunity, and Motivation. In the smoking module, students discussed statements on smoking and then used what they had learned to create preventive posters. Data were collected via online surveys before (t0) and after (t1) the one-year intervention. Students from the pre-BEP cohort served as a control group. The surveys included a yes-no question on whether smoking causes disease and a multiple-choice item on specific consequences (lung disease, cancer, infarction of the heart). Generalized estimating equations were used to assess changes in correct response rates, adjusted for gender and school type.
Results
At t0 and t1, data of 1021 and 664 intervention students were analyzed; the control group included 317 students. Gender and school type distribution were similar across groups (52% male, 25% vocational school students). Knowledge gains in the intervention group were significant, as was the difference in change between groups regarding smoking as a cause of cancer (62% at t0; MDdiff=9 percentage points [95% CI: 2–16]) and infarction of the heart (42% at t0; MDdiff=10 [CI: 3–17]). No significant change was observed for disease in general (91% at t0) or lung disease (89% at t0).
Conclusion
Peer-led, school-based programs that use experiential learning can enhance adolescents’ awareness of lesser-known smoking-related health risks. Further research should explore the impacts on attitudes and motivation.
Funding
SE 250+ Excellence, Scientific Foundations of Education Research Program of the Hungarian Academy of Sciences (SZKF-12/2021), EFOP-3.4.3.