SynthesisBMJ open2015
Effectiveness of school-based smoking prevention curricula: systematic review and meta-analysis.
Synthesis in BMJ open, 2015. The graph could read no effect estimate from its abstract, so it casts no vote on the map. Cited by 95 papers, 7 of them syntheses that pooled it.
What it found
Each row is one number read from the abstract, on the scale the paper reported it, with its interval. Left of the dashed line favours the treatment, right favours the comparator. Under each row is the sentence it came from. New to these charts? A ten-minute tutorial.
The abstract states no effect estimate the extractor could read, or names no intervention and outcome on the map, so this paper lights no cell and moves no belief. It is still indexed, cited and linked below.
The trial behind it
Trials whose registry record cites this paper, or whose number appears in the abstract. A trial that started after this paper was published is citing it as background, not reporting it.
Neither the registry nor the abstract names a trial number. If this is a trial report, that itself is worth knowing.
Who cites it
95 citing papers in PubMed, 7 syntheses or guidelines pooled it.
- Interventions to prevent or cease electronic cigarette use in children and adolescents.The Cochrane database of systematic reviews · 2026Pooled it
- A Systematic Review and Meta-analysis of School-Based Preventive Interventions Targeting E-Cigarette Use Among Adolescents.Prevention science : the official journal of the Society for Prevention Research · 2024Pooled it
- Interventions to prevent or cease electronic cigarette use in children and adolescents.The Cochrane database of systematic reviews · 2023Pooled it
- Pooled it
- A Systematic Literature Review of Peer-led Strategies for Promoting Physical Activity Levels of Adolescents.Health education & behavior : the official publication of the Society for Public Health Education · 2022Pooled it
- Systematic review of school tobacco prevention programs in African countries from 2000 to 2016.PloS one · 2018Pooled it
- Effective strategies to reduce commercial tobacco use in Indigenous communities globally: A systematic review.BMC public health · 2016Pooled it
- Effectiveness and cost-effectiveness of repeated implementation intention formation on adolescent smoking initiation: A cluster randomized controlled trial.Journal of consulting and clinical psychology · 2019Trial
- A Smoking Prevention Program Delivered by Medical Students to Secondary Schools in Brazil Called "Education Against Tobacco": Randomized Controlled Trial.Journal of medical Internet research · 2019Trial
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- The Short-term Effects of ASPIRA: A Web-based, Multimedia Smoking Prevention Program for Adolescents in Romania: A Cluster Randomized Trial.Nicotine & tobacco research : official journal of the Society for Research on Nicotine and Tobacco · 2017Trial
- A Medical Student-Delivered Smoking Prevention Program, Education Against Tobacco, for Secondary Schools in Germany: Randomized Controlled Trial.Journal of medical Internet research · 2017Trial
- High impact of implementation on school-based smoking prevention: the X:IT study-a cluster-randomized smoking prevention trial.Implementation science : IS · 2016Trial
- Preliminary evaluation of UP2UTeacher, a brief intervention addressing tobacco and nicotine use for high school students.Drug and alcohol dependence · 2026Article
- Study protocol for a quasi-experimental investigation of the effectiveness of the 'CATCH My Breath' vaping prevention curriculum at preventing vaping outcomes among high school students in Ontario, Canada.BMC public health · 2026Article
- School Staff Perspectives on Tobacco Prevention: Findings From a Statewide Educator Survey.Health education & behavior : the official publication of the Society for Public Health Education · 2026Article
- Study protocol for the Breathe Easy All Together e-cigarette prevention program: a RE-AIM framework-based experimental process and impact evaluation.BMC public health · 2026Article
- Motivational Drivers for Teachers as Informal Health Educators to Initiate In-Class Discussions With Adolescents About Smoking: Moderated Mediation Study Using Attribution Theory.JMIR pediatrics and parenting · 2026Article
35 more citing papers are in PubMed but not listed here.
Corrections and comments
PubMed lists nothing against this paper. Absence here is not a guarantee, only a check that was made.
Authors and funding
3 authors.
Funding
Abstract
objectiveTo assess effectiveness of school-based smoking prevention curricula keeping children never-smokers.
designSystematic review, meta-analysis. DATA: MEDLINE (1966+), EMBASE (1974+), Cinahl, PsycINFO (1967+), ERIC (1982+), Cochrane CENTRAL, Health Star, Dissertation Abstracts, conference proceedings. DATA SYNTHESIS: pooled analyses, fixed-effects models, adjusted ORs. Risk of bias assessed with Cochrane Risk of Bias tool.
setting50 randomised controlled trials (RCTs) of school-based smoking curricula.
participantsNever-smokers age 5-18 (n=143,495); follow-up ≥6 months; all countries; no date/language limitations.
interventionsInformation, social influences, social competence, combined social influences/competence and multimodal curricula. OUTCOME MEASURE: Remaining a never-smoker at follow-up.
resultsPooling all curricula, trials with follow-up ≤1 year showed no statistically significant differences compared with controls (OR 0.91 (0.82 to 1.01)), though trials of combined social competence/social influences curricula had a significant effect on smoking prevention (7 trials, OR 0.59 (95% CI 0.41 to 0.85)). Pooling all trials with longest follow-up showed an overall significant effect in favour of the interventions (OR 0.88 (0.82 to 0.95)), as did the social competence (OR 0.65 (0.43 to 0.96)) and combined social competence/social influences curricula (OR 0.60 (0.43 to 0.83)). No effect for information, social influences or multimodal curricula. Principal findings were not sensitive to inclusion of booster sessions in curricula or to whether they were peer-led or adult-led. Differentiation into tobacco-only or multifocal curricula had a similar effect on the primary findings. Few trials assessed outcomes by gender: there were significant effects for females at both follow-up periods, but not for males.
conclusionsRCTs of baseline never-smokers at longest follow-up found an overall significant effect with average 12% reduction in starting smoking compared with controls, but no effect for all trials pooled at ≤1 year. However, combined social competence/social influences curricula showed a significant effect at both follow-up periods. SYSTEMATIC REVIEW REGISTRATION: Cochrane Tobacco Review Group CD001293.
Indexed as
Identifiers
What OpenQuestion holds
Registered trials
Read under generation 80e0d062 · epoch 390. Bibliography from PubMed, PubMed Central and OpenAlex; grants from NIH RePORTER; trial links from ClinicalTrials.gov; estimates, votes and beliefs from the OpenQuestion graph.