Some German research which looked at whether delivering negative information to young people about the effects of smoking has a preventative effect caught my eye.
In their abstract the authors conclude:
Although the clinic intervention generated a significant immediate reaction, there were no significant preventive effects at follow-up. These results are in line with previous research and add further evidence for the ineffectiveness of emotionally arousing negative information giving in smoking prevention with adolescents.
I’d be interested in whether this suggests that when NICE come to review their guidance on preventing the uptake of smoking by children and young people they will need to change their view that negative information should be part of smoking prevention information and campaigns for young people.
It has to be said that the German research contrasts with the findings of a review of health messages on tobacco products which found:
The evidence also indicates that comprehensive warnings are effective among youth and may help to prevent smoking initiation. Pictorial health warnings that elicit strong emotional reactions are significantly more effective.
The Cochrane review of mass media interventions for young people has some interesting observations on what makes for a successful campaign. The reviewers say:
Overall, effective campaigns lasted longer with a minimum of three consecutive years, and were also more intense than less successful ones for both school based lessons (minimum eight lessons per grade) and media spots (minimum 4 weeks’ duration across multiple media channels with between 167 and 350 TV and radio spots). The timing and type of broadcast made a difference to their success, with older youths in one study preferring radio to television. Implementation of combined school based curriculum/components (i.e. school posters) and the use of repetitive media messages delivered via multiple channels (i.e. newspapers, radio, television) over a minimum period of three years contributed to successful campaigns. Changes in attitudes, knowledge or intention to smoke did not generally seem to affect the long-term success of the campaigns.
Meanwhile the recent update to the Cochrane review of school based prevention of smoking suggests that schools should combine social competence and social influences interventions.