| Methods |
Cohort study (reported as part of an RCT of a school based prevention programme)
Baseline survey: June 1981
Follow‐up: 17 months (1982) and 30 months (1983)
Site: Western Australia
Research question: Primary question was to evaluate an educational programme, secondary aim to relate uptake of smoking to baseline factors including perceived influence of advertising
Analysis: Logistic regression, separately for boys and girls. Prevention programme variable forced into model as first step. Additive risk model used to estimate parameters adjusted for other covariates measured at baseline |
| Participants |
2366 children from 45 schools, 82% followed up at 17 months and 64% at 30 months
Year 7 at baseline, between 11 and 14, modal age 12
Survey method: Questionnaire administered in classrooms. Students shown a film demonstrating how smoking could be detected from saliva analysis and samples collected but not all analysed. Smoking behaviour based on self‐report. |
| Interventions |
Influence of advertising measured by 1 question: How much do cigarette advertisements make you think you would like to smoke a cigarette? Responses dichotomised as none at all/ some influence.
Baseline information on habits of parents, siblings and friends, knowledge of and attitudes to smoking also collected. |
| Outcomes |
Smoking defined as even just a few puffs in past 12 months. Analysis uses only baseline nonsmokers |
| Notes |
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