Youth Smoking Prevention Program in Poland

Smoking Prevention Program is a pilot exploratory study with a standardized curriculum based on the Tobacco Prevention Toolkit from Stanford University and translated into Polish by the members of Students Scientific Association of Oncology at Wroclaw Medical University. The program will assess the effectiveness of a school-based smoking prevention curricula keeping children as never smokers and test the feasibility of engaging medical students and teachers in implementing and evaluating a validated program on smoking prevention within the Polish School System. The research protocols, methods and data collection instruments of a standardized classroom based valid tobacco prevention program from Stanford University will be used for the study. The smoking prevention program is centred on drug resistance, personal self-management and increasing social skills. The program increases knowledge and uses coaching and practice to provide students with the skills to resist social pressures around cigarette use. The secondary outcome of this study is to determine the change in attitudes by Polish Medical Student regarding Cancer Prevention Research. During Smoking Prevention Program workshops, the 5-Session Curriculum for primary schools will be translated, applied and evaluated for polish students.

This community-based pilot will engage medical students, the local school district and the local health authority. The Educational program meets the requirements set by Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) in Guidelines for School Health Programs to Prevent Tobacco Use and Addiction. Following parental consent, the program will be implemented with all 7th and 8th grade students (children age 12-15 years) from the Elementary School in Tyniec Mały. This project is supported by the Head of Lower Silesian Oncology Center, the Head of Department of Oncology of Wroclaw Medical University, the Health and Social Affairs Department of City of Wroclaw and under the patronage of the Lower Silesia Governor's Office, the Polish Society of Oncology, the Polish Society of Public Health, the Lower Silesian Department of Polish Society of Cardiology and the European Association for Cancer Education (EACE).

Smoking Prevention Program is funded by the READS Grant Program from the American Association for Cancer Education (AACE).