Effects of an electronic cigarette initiation prevention program among upper primary school students in Koh Chan district, Chonburi province

Abstract

The study is a quasi-experimental utilized a one-group pretest-posttest design to evaluate the effectiveness of the New Smokers Electronic Cigarette Prevention Program among upper primary school students in Ko Chan District, Chonburi Province. The sample included 30 primary school students from grades 5 and 6, selected using simple random sampling without replacement from schools in Ko Chan District. The experimental group participated in a 4-week program. The instruments included New Smokers Electronic Cigarette Prevention Program, questionnaire covering general information, attitudes, subjective norms, perceived behavioral control, and intention to prevent electronic cigarette use. Data analysis included percentage, mean, standard deviation, and paired t-tests. The results, post-intervention findings revealed statistically significant improvements in students' mean scores for attitudes (Mean diff. = 19.13, p<.001), perceived social norms (Mean diff. = 20.36, p<.001), perceived behavioral control (Mean diff. = 27.97, p<.001) and intentions to prevent electronic cigarette (Mean diff. = 15.40, p<.001) use compared to pre-intervention scores (p< 0.001). The results of this study revealed that the new-smokers electronic cigarette program is applicable for preventing electronic cigarette use among students at the upper primary school students.