November 3, 2006  

STUDY SHOWS EFFECTIVENESS OF TAR WARS YOUTH TOBACCO-FREE SCHOOL EDUCATION PROGRAM  

            DENVER - A study conducted by a Colorado team of family physicians has concluded that a school based tobacco free education program is effective in increasing students’ knowledge and understanding about the short term consequences of tobacco use, including cost of tobacco uses, truth of tobacco advertising, and peer norms.  

The study, conducted by a research team from the University of Colorado at Denver and Health Sciences Center Department of Family Medicine, presented findings that evaluated the effectiveness of the Tar Wars school education program in Colorado.  The results of the study are published in the current issue of the Journal of the American Board of Family Medicine.  

The research team was headed by Jeffrey J. Cain, MD, Chief of Family Medicine at The Children’s Hospital in Denver .  Dr. Cain recently presented the results of the research project to the Scientific Assembly of the American Academy of Family Physicians (AAFP) in Washington, D.C., where he was awarded first place for the “best research presentation overall.”  

Tar Wars is a national program operated by AAFP that utilizes an interactive 45-minute session taught by volunteer family physicians and other health care professionals in fourth and fifth grade classrooms and focuses on the short-term image-based consequences of tobacco use.   

It currently is being taught in 50 states and 14 counties, and has reached eight million school children.  In Colorado , the program is coordinated by the Colorado Academy of Family Physicians (CAFP) Foundation.  

In the study, Dr. Cain and his research team evaluated the effectiveness of the program in Colorado with both quantitative and qualitative measures.  Students participating in the quantitative evaluation were tested before and after a Tar Wars teaching session using a 14-question test covering short term and image based consequences of tobacco use, cost of smoking, tobacco advertising, and social norms of tobacco use.  Qualitative evaluation included guided telephone interviews and focus groups with students, teachers and presenters.  

Quantitative evaluation showed statistically significant improvement in correct responses for the 14 questions measured.  Three areas specifically recommended by the Centers for Disease Control (CDC) for youth tobacco prevention programs showed even greater change in correct responses, including the cost of smoking, truth of tobacco advertising, and peer norms of tobacco use.  

Qualitative evaluation found that the overall message from the lesson was well received, a positive response to having a guest physician speaker, that new information was learned, and previously known tobacco information was reinforced by the novel teaching format.  

The study also showed that Tar Wars meets the guidelines set by CDC as one component of effective comprehensive youth tobacco prevention.  The research tool was approved by the STEPP program at the Colorado Department of Public Health & Environment.  

In addition to Dr. Cain, other members of the research study team from the University of Colorado at Denver and Health Sciences Center Department of Family Medicine included W. Perry Dickinson, MD; Douglas Feral, MA; Caroline Bullets, MS; L. Miriam Dickinson, PhD, and David West, PhD.  

Dr. Cain is the co-founded of the Tar Wars Program, which was developed in 1988 by the Hall of Life at the Denver Museum of Natural History and the Doctors Ought to Care organization.