Background: Unplugged is a Social Influence school-based curriculum consisting of 12 units, one hour each, delivered by trained class teachers to adolescents 12-14 years old during the school year. It was developed and tested in the European Drug Addiction Prevention trial, and it was shown to be effective in reducing cigarette smoking, episodes of drunkenness and the use of cannabis at short term. In 2010-2011, a controlled non-randomized study was conducted in Slovenia to evaluate the effectiveness of the program. Methods: 48 schools accepted to participate in the study, 26 in the intervention arm and 22 in the control one. However, 4 schools from the intervention arm dropped out, leaving a sample of 22 schools in the intervention and 22 schools in the control arm. A pre-test survey was conducted before the implementation of the program, and a post-test survey was conducted 3 months after the end of the program. All the students in the intervention and control arm were administered a self-completed and anonymous questionnaire including 42 items investigating tobacco and substance use, alcohol use and abuse, intentions, knowledge, expectations and attitudes about substances, social and personal skills, normative beliefs, family relationships, school climate. Prevalence of behaviours at post test was compared with that at pre-test in the intervention and control arms. Multilevel Analysis will be used to investigate the effectiveness of the program in preventing and reducing drug use. Results: Overall 2937 pupils of 44 schools and 155 classes participated in the baseline survey between October and November 2010. Seventy-five percent of post-test questionnaires matched with pre-test ones and were available for effectiveness analyses. Among students participating in the survey at baseline 49.3% were boys, 27.5% were 12 years old, 50.4% 13 years old, and 21.5% 14 years old. 66.6% of pupils lived with both parents, and 83.6% had siblings. On overall only 17.9% of Slovenian students declared to have smoked at least one cigarette in their life and only 2.8% smoked at least one cigarette in the last 30 days. Around 59% of pupils already drunk alcohol, and 26% drunk alcohol in the last 30 days. 15% percent of pupils had at least one episode of drunkenness in their life, whilst 4.3% had at least one episode of drunkenness in the last 30 days. Around 2% used cannabis in their life, and 0.5% in the last 30 days. Less than 1% of pupils used other illicit drugs in their life, 0.3% in the last month. Results from unadjusted analysis of the effect are very encouraging. The use of all substances appeared to be reduced by the program. However, a more appropriate multilevel adjusted analysis is ongoing. Conclusions More than 2000 pupils participated to the evaluation study in Slovenia. Preliminary unadjusted results on the effectiveness of the program are encouraging. However, final results of the adjusted model are needed.

Evaluation of effectiveness of Unplugged in Slovenia, 2010-2011

VIGNA-TAGLIANTI, Federica;
2015-01-01

Abstract

Background: Unplugged is a Social Influence school-based curriculum consisting of 12 units, one hour each, delivered by trained class teachers to adolescents 12-14 years old during the school year. It was developed and tested in the European Drug Addiction Prevention trial, and it was shown to be effective in reducing cigarette smoking, episodes of drunkenness and the use of cannabis at short term. In 2010-2011, a controlled non-randomized study was conducted in Slovenia to evaluate the effectiveness of the program. Methods: 48 schools accepted to participate in the study, 26 in the intervention arm and 22 in the control one. However, 4 schools from the intervention arm dropped out, leaving a sample of 22 schools in the intervention and 22 schools in the control arm. A pre-test survey was conducted before the implementation of the program, and a post-test survey was conducted 3 months after the end of the program. All the students in the intervention and control arm were administered a self-completed and anonymous questionnaire including 42 items investigating tobacco and substance use, alcohol use and abuse, intentions, knowledge, expectations and attitudes about substances, social and personal skills, normative beliefs, family relationships, school climate. Prevalence of behaviours at post test was compared with that at pre-test in the intervention and control arms. Multilevel Analysis will be used to investigate the effectiveness of the program in preventing and reducing drug use. Results: Overall 2937 pupils of 44 schools and 155 classes participated in the baseline survey between October and November 2010. Seventy-five percent of post-test questionnaires matched with pre-test ones and were available for effectiveness analyses. Among students participating in the survey at baseline 49.3% were boys, 27.5% were 12 years old, 50.4% 13 years old, and 21.5% 14 years old. 66.6% of pupils lived with both parents, and 83.6% had siblings. On overall only 17.9% of Slovenian students declared to have smoked at least one cigarette in their life and only 2.8% smoked at least one cigarette in the last 30 days. Around 59% of pupils already drunk alcohol, and 26% drunk alcohol in the last 30 days. 15% percent of pupils had at least one episode of drunkenness in their life, whilst 4.3% had at least one episode of drunkenness in the last 30 days. Around 2% used cannabis in their life, and 0.5% in the last 30 days. Less than 1% of pupils used other illicit drugs in their life, 0.3% in the last month. Results from unadjusted analysis of the effect are very encouraging. The use of all substances appeared to be reduced by the program. However, a more appropriate multilevel adjusted analysis is ongoing. Conclusions More than 2000 pupils participated to the evaluation study in Slovenia. Preliminary unadjusted results on the effectiveness of the program are encouraging. However, final results of the adjusted model are needed.
2015
VI Conferenza dell’European Society for Prevention Research “Changing behaviour without talking: automatic processes and the regulation of behaviour”
Ljubljana (Slovenia)
22-24 Ottobre 2015
Conference Booklet
European Society for Prevention Research
57
57
Vigna-Taglianti F; Cuomo GL; Talić S; Košir M.
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Utilizza questo identificativo per citare o creare un link a questo documento: https://hdl.handle.net/2318/1574942
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