The effects of positive interactive education on adolescent perception and attitudes towards smoking behaviour

Background: Prevention and treatment of adolescent novice smokers by suggesting the negative effects of smoking cigarettes are considered less effective. Nursing action, as one of the strategies to prevent adolescent novice smokers, aims to provide interactive education by exposing the positive effects of absence of smoking cigarettes resulting in changes in attitude and perception of adolescents about smoking behaviour. 

Objective: To examine the effects of positive interactive education on adolescent perception and attitudes towards smoking behaviour. 

Method: This was a quasi-experimental study with time series approach, comprising intervention and control groups of 72 junior high school students. Simple random sampling was employed to determine the target area, schools, and respondents of the research. 

Results: Results of the study showed that positive interactive education significantly affected the perception (p = 0.001) and attitude (p = 0.001) in the first post-test as well as the perception (p = 0.002) and attitude (p = 0.001) in the second post-test. 

Conclusions: Positive interactive education affects adolescent perception and attitudes concerning smoking behaviours so that this interactive education could be used as one of the strategies to prevent adolescents from smoking.

Sri Lanka Journal of Child health, 2020; 49(2): 108-115

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