The goal of this study was to assess the effects of a school-based smoking prevention programme that used both a video and peer-led discussion groups among Romanian junior high school students aged 13-14 years. The programme embraced the social influence approach and concentrated on enhancing self-efficacy and the acquisition of cigarette refusal skills. Twenty schools were randomly assigned to the control and experimental conditions, resulting in 55 participating classes from the seventh grade (28 in the control group and 27 in the experimental group). Pretest and 9 months follow-up data on weekly smoking initiation and psychosocial variables were collected from 1071 students. Multilevel logistic regression analyses demonstrated a significant effect of the programme on adolescents' smoking behaviour after 9 months. At post-test, weekly smoking onset was 4.5% in the experimental group versus 9.5% in the control group. Furthermore, the programme had significant effects on smoking-related beliefs. In the experimental group, this resulted in a more negative attitude towards smoking, increased social self-efficacy levels and a more negative intention towards smoking. These findings show that short-term effects of the smoking prevention programme can be realized in Romania. More studies are needed to analyse how to maintain these effects over time.

It is important for future studies of adolescent substance use to systematically investigate the gender differences in the tobacco-alcohol relationship.

Ključne besede: dejavniki kajenja, romunski mladostniki, preprečevanje kajenja stronger intention to smoke in the future will predict smoking onset. Second, we compare the outcomes and amount of variance explained when using a crosssectional compared to a longitudinal design. METHODS Sample and procedureIn spring 2004, five senior high schools from ClujNapoca, a city in north-west Romania with approximately 330,000 inhabitants and 39 high schools, were randomly chosen and approached to participate in a survey about adolescent smoking behaviour. Time and financial constraints limited the inclusion of more schools in the study. The principals of the five schools were informed about the survey during individual meetings with the research team; all principals agreed to participate, and all first-year classes from the five schools were involved in the survey. Consent was obtained from the school administration only, in line with standard procedure in Romania. Data were gathered in two waves. A baseline measurement was conducted in May-June 2004 (T1) among students from 19 first-year senior high school classes (aged 15 to 17), and a follow-up measurement was performed 12 months later (T2). The students were not informed in advance about the date on which the assessment would take place. The research team administered the questionnaires to each class; classroom completion of the questionnaire took approximately 50 minutes. Students were asked to read an introductory letter. They were assured that the researchers would treat their questionnaires confidentially and that they could refuse to participate by leaving the questionnaire blank. They put their completed questionnaires in an envelope, sealed it and wrote their names on the envelope and then the researchers collected the envelopes. No refusals were recorded; non-participation was exclusively due to absence of students on the day of assessment. The questionnaires were filled in by 473 students at T1 and 482 students at T2. A total of 416 students participated in both measurements; 66.5% of these were girls.

AimThe first goal of this study was to assess the prevalence of different health risk behaviours among Romanian young people. Next, the interrelationship between different health risk behaviours as well as age and gender differences with respect to health risk behaviours were examined.Subjects and methodsSelf-administered questionnaires were completed by a sample of 1,598 junior high school students, senior high school students and university students from urban and rural areas of two counties of Romania.ResultsThe results showed that 31% of junior high school students, 59.7% of senior high school students and 64.8% of university students reported more than one risk behaviour. Many of the risk behaviours were likely to correlate with each other and the strongest correlation was found between smoking, alcohol-related behaviour and precocious sexual intercourse. Factor analysis revealed that among junior high school students all health risk behaviours loaded on one factor. In senior high school students and university students the risk behaviours split into two factors, based probably on their frequency and severity. Factor 1 comprised smoking, alcohol-related behaviours as well as precocious sexual intercourse, while factor 2 included less common behaviours: violence, delinquency and illicit drug use. No gender differences were observed regarding the relationship between health risk behaviours.ConclusionThe results stress the importance of developing prevention programmes among Romanian youth for the behaviours discussed. Further research is needed to identify how to best offer these programmes: as stand-alone programmes or as an integrated set of programmes and whether the same approach has to be taken for younger and older adolescents.

S1071 In Romania smoking is responsible for more than 32 000 of deaths annually.2 Particular concern is caused by the increasing trends in smoking prevalence among Romanian young adults, which call for comprehensive actions of smoking prevention and reduction among this group. AbstractThis paper reviews data published between 1990 and 2006 regarding smoking prevalence as well as individual and contextual influences on the smoking behavior among Romanian young adults. Highlights include a consideration of multiple levels of influence, from intra-individual factors, such as demographic and cognitive factors, to social influences, such as families and peers, to the more macro, societal/cultural levels of influence, including advertising and tobacco-related policies The source of data is represented by articles and short information published in journals or in electronic format, legislation, statistics and are illustrated with pictures. Based on these data, recommendations for future smoking prevention and reduction actions for Romanian youth are taken.