[The ``tobacco-free hospital and campus'' action: mid-term evaluation of the needs expressed by students and professionals]

INTRODUCTION

In 2021, smoking was considered to be the leading cause of avoidable death in the world, causing numerous pathologies. The rate of smoking in French department of Finistère is high, and the ARS (regional health authority) has funded a prevention campaign for a tobacco-free hospital and campus in Brest. Some health students' smoke (17.8%) and/or vape (5.6%). The aim of this article was to study the middle-term impact of the Smokefree campus prevention campaign.

MATERIAL AND METHOD

A descriptive cross-sectional study by self-administered questionnaire was carried out between 24/01/2022 and 21/02/2022, using Sphinx software.

RESULTS

The participation rates were 29.9% (students) and 29.4% (professionals). Among students, 12.6% were smokers, as were 13.3% of professionals. Just over 75% of respondents were aware of Smokefree campus, and 75% knew that it concerned both vaping and smoking. Nearly 60% of respondents thought that the smoke-free campus program could improve coherence between (a) the care training function of the faculty and the IFPS and (b) its exemplarity on the issue of smoking. Among smokers, 44% thought that quitting smoking or vaping during working hours was possible, while and 44% thought that it was possible to quit, whatever the setting. For student smokers, this was contemplated by only 18.2%, and deemed possible by 24%.

CONCLUSION

While the smoking rate has remained relatively high, the Smokefree campus campaign is widely known and understood. It is important to pursue this kind of prevention campaign insofar as it could have a positive impact on the health of future caregivers and their patients.

[Profile of first year secondary school children involved in the anti-smoking prevention trial "PEPITES"]

BACKGROUND

Many programs which aim to reduce tobacco consumption in young people are carried out in the school environment, addressing a "captive audience" and monitoring the actions over a period of several years. The approaches identified as promising involve putting in place a tobacco prevention program throughout the entire school years incorporated in the school program. Several studies showed that early initiation to psychoactive substances is a strong predictor of addiction. Considering the above points, an intervention trial on tobacco prevention covering the four years of secondary school (±11-15 years old) was implemented in the Essonne area, in France.

METHOD

This study was based on a cluster randomized trial comparing three groups: two intervention groups and a control group. The present paper describes the school children (1st year in six secondary schools) included in the trial. It studies the national representativity of this population, the comparability between the control and intervention groups and the items link to tobacco initiation.

RESULTS

When considering tobacco behavior in 2014, the included population was representative of the school children in 1st year of secondary school in France with 11.5% of tobacco initiation and 2.5% of regular smokers. The groups were comparable except for four items (family and friends smoking, only child, sensitive urban areas). With this knowledge on factors linked to smoking behaviors this population can be included in the trial analysis.

CONCLUSION

The study of the included population will help to perform the trial analysis and authorize the transferability of the trial results if positive.

[Monitoring and tackling smoking and other addictions: Current situation and perspectives]

After decades of policies targetting illicit drugs, the French drug addiction policy has progressively switched to incorporate a concept of « addictive behavior », including alchol, tobacco, pharmaceuticals and even behaviors such as gambling. Among the French general population, alcohol and tobacco uses are by far the most important health risk factors, with a very high burden of morbidity and mortality. Illicit drugs have very low prevalences except cannabis, with the highest prevalence in Europe, among adults as well as among adolescents. However, actions have long been implemented to tackle illicit drugs uses, in particular intraveinous drug use regarding its role in the HIV infection, with harm reduction tools such as opioids substitution treatments or needle exchange programs. While continuing this harm reduction policy, public authorities have strengthened measures towards alcohol, and moreover towards tobacco use with many legal and public health improvements. The goals are to reduce tobacco visibility (smoking bans in public places and even in pubs and restaurants), tobacco accessibility (price increase, ban on sales to minors…) and also to develop helps for those who wish to quit. The objective is to « denormalize » tobacco until there is a whole tobacco free generation in 2032 in France. One the one hand, this aim does not seem too irrealistic as the last general population survey results show a recent decrease in the tobacco smoking prevalence, as well as a decrease in social inequalities in tobacco use. One the other hand, the implementation of an harm reduction approach for alcohol, tobacco and cannabis remains to build.

Rationale, design and conduct of a school-based anti-smoking intervention: the "PEPITES" cluster randomized trial

BACKGROUND

In France smoking initiation rates amongst 11 to 16 year-olds are worryingly high. Several studies show that early initiation to psycho-active substances is a strong predictor of tobacco addiction. Decreasing the age at which tobacco use starts represents a key challenge for reducing tobacco usage. Implementing an intervention trial using educational workshops based on the Theory of Planned Behavior (TPB) and covering the 4 years of secondary school could be effective.

METHODS

"PEPITES" is an interventional research, using a cluster randomized design. It will allow assessing the effectiveness of interventions both in reducing the tobacco initiation rate and the regular smoking rate of secondary school pupils. We will also evaluate the process of the implementation of the study and thus will help to the transferability of the intervention. A partnership convention was signed between the JDB Foundation and the National Education authority which designated 6 secondary state schools for the PEPITES trial. The 6 schools were randomly allocated to 3 groups of 2 clusters each: 1 control group, 2 different intervention groups with 2 workshops per year during 4 years; In one of this group the 2 last workshops will be dedicated to measure the loss of taste due to tobacco smoking. In each school, all pupils in year 1 with a signed parental authorization (744 pupils) have been included in the trial. The interventions targets one of the variables of the TPB and the reinforcement of psycho-social competencies. We estimated that we could detect a reduction of increase ≥5.5 and 8% respectively in the 2 principal outcomes (risk α of 5%, and β of 80%).

DISCUSSION

Carrying out a randomized prevention trial in the school environment raises specific problems which it seems useful to detail for other educational actors who would like to perform a similar study. This discussion concerns the acceptation and cooperation of the National Education partners, the risks of contamination, the information given to parents and pupils and their consent, and the representativeness of the schools involved.

TRIAL REGISTRATION

ISRCTN85812512 . Registered 15 May 2018 by BioMed Central. (retrospectively registered).

Interventions de prévention des conduites addictives chez les adolescents les plus efficaces dans la littérature scientifique

Les interventions de prévention des conduites addictives chez les adolescents ont fait l’objet d’études d’évaluation visant à mesurer leur efficacité. Nous proposons de présenter un panorama des interventions évaluées comme efficaces sur la prévention des consommations de substances psychoactives chez les jeunes (alcool, tabac et substances illicites). Ce travail a été réalisé en 2014 dans le cadre de l’expertise collective de l’Inserm « conduite addictive chez les adolescents. Usages, prévention et accompagnement » . Il s’est appuyé sur l’exploitation des corpus bibliographiques de trois synthèses de littérature publiées en 2013 par l’Institut national de prévention et d’éducation pour la santé (INPES). Notre analyse comprend 12 revues systématiques de la Cochrane Library, huit synthèses ou revues d’organismes ou instituts œuvrant dans le champ de la santé publique, et 13 revues systématiques de la littérature scientifique publiées entre 2002 et 2012. Nous avons complété l’analyse à l’aide de trois revues de littérature consacrées spécifiquement aux interventions d’aide à distance. Ces données ont été synthétisées afin de dégager les principales approches préventives ayant fait la preuve de leur efficacité sur la prévention des comportements d’expérimentation ou sur la réduction (diminution ou arrêt) des comportements de consommation d’alcool, de tabac et de substances illicites. Les interventions jugées efficaces sont les interventions visant à développer les compétences psychosociales des élèves, en particulier la résistance à l’influence des pairs, la résolution de problèmes, l’affirmation et l’estime de soi. Les autres interventions ayant fait la preuve de leur efficacité sont les interventions visant le développement des compétences parentales, les stratégies à composantes multiples, les interventions fondées sur l’entretien motivationnel, les interventions incluant un volet psychothérapeutique, les interventions d’aide à distance, certaines campagnes médias et certaines interventions visant à limiter l’accès aux produits.