School-based interventions can help students, parents, teachers and administrators become tobacco-free by providing programs, policies and environments that support healthy lifestyles. Schools are also great resources for preventing or decreasing tobacco use in the broader community (e.g., educating parents and community members).
School-based interventions are most effective when links to interventions in other settings are established in order to prevent or decrease tobacco use both inside and outside of the school day:
- Community-based (e.g., minimize/eliminate retail tobacco outlets in close proximity to schools)
- Worksite-based (e.g., develop flexible work leave policies that make parent participation in school activities an option for employees)
- Faith-based (e.g., allow faith-based organizations to use school facilities and equipment to host events that encourage tobacco prevention)
- Health care-based (e.g., educate school nurses on the importance of preventing or decreasing tobacco use among students)
- Home-based (e.g., encourage parents to serve as role models and live tobacco-free)
Before You Begin…
There are a number of planning steps that lead to a variety of specific intervention strategies. For assistance with these planning steps, use the navigation bar at the end of this page. Intervention MICA provides you with tools to help you:
- Create a partnership with other individuals, groups and organizations within your community.
- Learn about your readiness to plan your intervention (readiness and preparation).
- Work on your organizational or community capacity, budget, funding sources, social determinants of health, or cultural competence (capacity).
- Prepare your evaluation in order to figure out how to measure the success of your intervention.
- Maintain your momentum through information, tools and resources to assist you in sustaining your partnership and intervention over time.
Below are specific intervention strategies for school-based interventions. If you will be working in other settings (e.g., communities, worksites, faith-based organizations, health care facilities or homes), then you will want to refer to these other settings for more information.
Intervention Strategies
Even though the intervention strategies that may be used are described separately below, each of these strategies is most effective when it is combined with other strategies. For example, changing students’ knowledge, attitudes and beliefs about physical activity may do little to affect behavior unless the school has policies restricting tobacco use for administrators, faculty, or staff on school premises. Likewise, the school will need to have adequate enforcement of school policies (e.g., hall monitors) and support from teachers and administrators in order to prevent tobacco use among students.
As described in Readiness and Preparation, it is important to make sure that the intervention strategies are created to represent and address the needs of the Community of Interest. This may include paying attention to how different groups think about tobacco use (e.g., preferences for different types of tobacco use may exist for men and women or children and adults). Furthermore, an intervention works best when there is an attempt to address language, reading level, and cultural barriers (see Cultural Competence for more information). For information on different populations that have received tobacco interventions, go to Tobacco Prevention in Different Populations.
--Increasing knowledge and skills, influencing attitudes and beliefs
Individual Information Exchange intervention strategies have been developed to increase individual knowledge and skills as well as to change attitudes and beliefs about tobacco use. More specifically, these interventions may provide personally tailored information about the benefits of not using tobacco (e.g., better health or improved physical fitness), the barriers to quitting (e.g., addiction, peer pressure) or ways to prevent the onset of tobacco use. Tailored information may take into account the person’s readiness for change or specific interests in order to help them eliminate their use of tobacco. These interventions are also useful in helping individuals develop skills to resist peer pressure, find alternatives to tobacco use or help others to live tobacco-free.
Mass Media Campaigns are interventions that address messages about tobacco to large audiences. The campaigns are designed to increase knowledge, influence attitudes and beliefs and change behavior. Messages are communicated using newspapers, radio, television, posters, pamphlets, brochures, newsletters, videos, direct mail and billboards with generic, untailored information.
Group Education Sessions are interventions focused on provision of information and are delivered through health education classes or group sessions. They provide education and skills related to decision-making and are usually multi-component, with curriculum addressing elements of smoking and the health risks of using tobacco, coupled with skill-building techniques, role playing, lectures, lessons, etc. Health education classes are designed to effect behavior change through personal and behavioral factors that provide subjects with the skills they need for rational and informed decision-making. Because of the interactive nature of group settings, participants have the opportunity to learn new information, ask questions, get support from other participants and the facilitator or instructor and practice new skills.
Provider Education Systems are interventions targeting health care providers (doctors, nurses, clinicians, health practitioners) to encourage them to educate their patients regarding the importance of smoking cessation, if the patient currently smokes, and encouraging abstinence from tobacco, if the patient is not a current smoker. Provider education systems include educating the providers on the importance of talking to their patients, reminding providers to talk to their patients during routine visits and offering feedback to providers regarding retrospective assessments of their performance in delivering tobacco cessation advice or assistance to patients.
--Providing social support
Supportive Relationships are interventions build on social or interpersonal relationships (e.g., family members, co-workers, friends, peers, role models) in order to provide support system for behavior change. This may include increasing the information individuals have about tobacco use (informational support), the skills and abilities people have to live tobacco-free (tangible support) and the sense of acceptance and belonging among community members as they make choices to live tobacco-free (appraisal support). Examples of social support strategies include: buddy systems, group discussions/therapy, partner support, peer leaders, parent-child interactions or others.
Group Education Sessions (see description above)
Provider Education Systems (see description above)
--Changing public policies and the community environment
Youth Access Restrictions are interventions that attempt to limit youth access to tobacco by enforcing the prohibition of tobacco sales to minors. Strategies include educating vendors on the importance of asking for identification when youth attempt to purchase tobacco and refusing sales to underage youth, fining vendors who do sell to minors and educating law personnel to enforce youth tobacco laws.
Smoking Bans and Restrictions are policy-related interventions that either prohibit smoking entirely in a building or facility, restrict smoking to specific smoking areas that are well-ventilated and enclosed from other areas of the building, or place outdoor smoking areas a certain distance from entrances into the building. These bans and restrictions are created to discourage people from smoking by providing barriers and inconveniences to smokers as well as reducing exposure to environmental tobacco smoke (ETS) among non-smokers. In addition, smoking bans and restrictions can also help to reduce exposure to environmental tobacco smoke (ETS) among children in homes with adult smokers by educating and encouraging parents/guardians to smoke outdoors.