A survey was conducted from September 15 to December 15 2001. Structured questionnaires were mailed to school nurses in 607 elementary schools around the country in order to determine the current status of anti-smoking education in elementary schools.
The result were as followers:
1. Of the 607 schools, 535 (88.1%) offered smoking-prevention education.
By region. Jeju-do (100%) topped the list, followed by Seoul (90.3%), Gyeongsang-do (90.2%), Jeolla-do (88.9%), Gangwon-do (87,8%). Chungcheong-do (84.6%), and Gyeonggi-do (81.4%). "Recognition of the need for anti-smoking program (86%)" was a major motivation for initiating the program, while "too much workload (46.4%)" was cited as a main reason for the failure to do so.
2. The classes were offered mostly for 6th-grade students (87.8%), while 9.0% and 2.0% were implemented at 5th- and 4th- grades, respectively.
3. 49.1% of the classes offered lasted one hour, while 31.8% involved a two-hour program.
4. Programs were mainly about smoking-related diseases, habitual nature of smoking, impediment to growth and development, etc.
5. Audio-visual lecture (46.5%) was most frequently used as a method of education, followed by lecture.
6. 72.7% of the programs used classroom as a unit of education, while collective education by sex or by grade accounted for 22.6%.
7. Video (51.0%) was the most popular medium for education, while computer ranked second with 26.5%.
8. 92.5% of the education was offered by school nurses.
9. 99.2% of school nurses responded in favor of anti-smoking programs. with 60.1% of them answering that such education is a must. 5th grade was the most commonly cited grade for the initiation of the programs, followed by 4th grade and 6th grade. 33.2% picked two hours as the most appropriate length of the program at the elementary school level, while 25.1% chose 3 hours out of the range of 1-11 hour(s).
10. With regard to the evaluation by school nurses on smoking-prevention program, more than 30% felt that hours of education, education materials, medium of education, interests of other teachers, interests of school authorities, etc. were inadequate or insufficient.
|