Stopping Smoking Before it Causes Cancer

Numerous studies have linked smoking to a significantly higher risk of breast and other cancers. More recently, researchers have begun focusing on some of the physiological and emotional factors that make quitting smoking so difficult, especially for women. To date, though, little research has delved into the success rates for anti-smoking programs aimed at teenagers and young adults before they start.

However, a new collaborative study by the state of Oregon and the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) has concluded that tobacco prevention programs in schools actually do make a difference.

From 1999 to 2000, the Oregon Health Division found that eighth graders were about 20 percent less likely to smoke if their school had a comprehensive anti-smoking program in place.

The CDC's recommended school guidelines call for tobacco-free school policies, family involvement, community involvement, tobacco prevention curriculum instruction, teacher and staff training, and support for students trying to stop smoking.

Among the schools that participated in the study, there was a strong relationship between how fully schools implemented the CDC's anti-smoking program guidelines and how much smoking rates declined.

For example, smoking rates declined from 14.8 to 8.2 percent in schools with the highest implementation scores, versus from 17.1 to 15.6 percent in schools with the lowest scores. Smoking declines in the lowest-scoring schools were almost equal to the declines observed in Oregon schools that did not participate in the program.

"This study shows that comprehensive school programs really do work to prevent teen smoking and can be an effective part of a state's effort to prevent and reduce tobacco use," said Dr. Jeffrey Koplan, the director of the CDC, in response to the findings. "We need strong policies that keep our schools tobacco-free, and the involvement of parents and the whole community are an important part of the package."

The Oregon study adds to a large body of evidence documented in the 2000 Surgeon General's Report, "Reducing Tobacco Use," that school-based programs, combined with community and media-based activities, can effectively prevent or postpone smoking onset in 20 to 40 percent of U.S. adolescents.

"Unfortunately, very few schools nationwide are implementing the major components of our tobacco use prevention guidelines," cautioned Dr. Lawrence W. Green, the director of the CDC's Office on Smoking and Health. "We hope this latest study will motivate more schools to adopt effective comprehensive programs and implement them fully, as they were designed to be."

SOURCES:
Morbidity and Mortality Weekly Report, Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, August 10, 2001
Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (http://www.cdc.gov)

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