Media statement

MRC releases results on 2 school based tobacco prevention and cessation studies in South Africa

The South African Medical Research Council (MRC), the Minister of Health and the Director General of the Department of Education is inviting all members of the media to the release of the results of the first randomised controlled trial about two school-based tobacco prevention and cessation curricula on Wednesday, 21 November at the MRC premises in Parow Valley.

This study was a partnership between the MRC, the Dept of Health, the Dept of Education and a team of international experts on adolescent health behaviour and school health promotion. The study was a 5 year NIH-R01 grant with the MRC Principal Investigator being Prof Priscilla Reddy and the US Principal Investigator being Prof Ken Resnicow from Ann Arbour, Michigan. The project director for the MRC was Dr Sheg James. This was a multi-phased study with the aim of adapting and testing two contrasting school-based approaches to adolescent tobacco use reduction, using a 3-armed randomised control trial design.

The study was done in two provinces in South Africa, namely KwaZulu Natal and the Western Cape. The results will be given to the Minister of Health and DG of the Department of Education.

Note to Editors
Previous MRC research, the First Youth Risk Behaviour Survey (SA YRBS 2002) and the Global Youth Tobacco Surveys (GYTS 1999 and 2002) have shown that the highest rates of smoking were amongst ‘Coloured’ learners, and learners in the Western Cape, while the lowest rates were among African black learners and learners in KwaZulu-Natal (KZN). Therefore schools were selected with a focus on formerly Department of Education and Training (DET) - KZN schools and formerly House Of Representatives (HOR) - Western Cape schools, so that efficacy of the curricula would be tested on both high-use and low-use learners.