The Effect of Health Literacy Enhancement Program on Smoking Preventive Behavior of Junior Students at Yang Subdistrict, Kanthararom District, Sisaket Province

Abstract

          This study employed a quasi-experimental design with a one-group pretest-posttest approach and was aimed at studying the effectiveness of a health literacy promotion program on smoking prevention behaviors among lower secondary school students in Yang Sub-district, Kanthararom District, Sisaket Province. The sample consisted of 45 randomly selected lower secondary school students in Yang Sub-district. The health literacy promotion program, developed by the researcher, was implemented over 12 weeks. Data were collected using questionnaires and analyzed by using descriptive statistics and paired samples. T-tests.
           The results revealed that after participating in the program, students showed a significant increase in health literacy and smoking prevention behaviors (P < 0.001), particularly in areas such as knowledge about smoking, access to health information and services, health communication, self-management, media literacy, and smoking prevention practices. Additionally, a comparison of smoking prevention behaviors before and after the program indicated a significant improvement. From these findings, it can be concluded that the health literacy promotion program is effective in enhancing smoking prevention behaviors among students and can serve as a guideline for future youth smoking prevention initiatives.