“It’s best not to start smoking”. Preventive campaign of the tobacco habit in 1st of “eso” students from the community pharmacy

ntroduction: Tobacco is an enormous public health problem. Preteens are a target population for anti-smoking campaigns. 

Objectives: To analyse the consumption data, attitudes and general beliefs regarding tobacco habit of 1st of ESO students. Sensitize the preadolescent population against smoking. Present the pharmacist to the educational community as a health professional involved in smoking prevention.

Material and methods: A descriptive, observational study conducted over four months as part of campaign “IT’S BEST NOT TO START SMOKING” (www.lomejoresnoempezarafumar.com) in which 1298 students participated from 20 Extremadura localities. Data collected in the classroom, via an online survey, anonymous, standardised and self-administered, collected on Google Drive. 

Results: Sample with 51.3  % boys and 48.7  % girls. The 10.2  % of them from rural areas. The 96.2  % consider that smoking is detrimental to health. The 86.7  % are aware that it is a drug. The 12.5  % have tried a cigarette and 3.4  % admit to smoking. The 64.3  % saw e-cigarettes as a better option compared to traditional cigarettes. Among the smokers, the principal reasons motivating them to quit, is their health (40.4  %). If they needed help to stop smoking, most would go to a psychologist (38.5  %) and only 5.1  % would go to a pharmacist.

Conclusions: Our sample is a generation based on basic health principles, almost all considered harmful to smoke, however 1 in 8, admit having tried a cigarette. So we believe that prevention could be useful and necessary.

Although the average age of initiation of tobacco use at the age of 14 is estimated, it would be advisable to develop preventive campaigns at younger ages.

Pharmacists still have a lot of work to do to be perceived as first-line health professionals in the fight against tobacco.