Tabado, a school-based program designed to help vocational high school students and apprentices quit smoking

While public policies implemented in France over the past 30 years have helped reduce tobacco use among young people, this reduction remains unevenly distributed: young people from less privileged socioeconomic backgrounds continue to smoke at high rates. The Tabado program aims to support vocational high school students and apprentices—who have a high prevalence of smoking—in accessing smoking cessation services. Deemed effective during its pilot phase in 2009, it was rolled out to 142 schools during the 2019–2020 school year. The results presented in this article, generated as part of the program’s evaluation, are based on a questionnaire administered to students at these schools prior to the intervention. It collected 34,669 responses. Statistical analysis highlights several findings. First, the large-scale rollout of the program leads to only limited diversification in the profile of the target audience. This audience is characterized by high and varied tobacco consumption as well as poly-substance use. The surveyed population is also marked by high rates of quit attempts and intentions, while making only very limited use of existing support services. The study demonstrates the relevance of a program offering a proportionate universal approach to reduce health inequalities among young people particularly vulnerable to smoking and suggests avenues for further developing the program.

Author(s): Cathelineau François, Le Tyrant Marion, Audran Martin, Deutsch Antoine, Jeannin Clara

Publishing year: 2021

Pages: 148-154

Weekly Epidemiological Bulletin, 2021, n° 8, p. 148-154

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