Background: Decisions to smoke are made within a broad social context. Community interventions use co-ordinated, widespread, multi-component programmes to try and influence behaviour.
Objectives: To determine the effectiveness of community interventions in preventing the uptake of smoking in young people.
Search strategy: The Tobacco Addiction group specialised register, Medline and other health, psychology and public policy electronic databases were searched, the bibliographies of identified studies were checked and contact was made with content area specialists. Searches were updated in September 2002.
Selection criteria: Randomised and non randomised controlled trials that assessed the effectiveness of multi-component community interventions compared to no intervention or to single component or school-based programmes only. Reported outcomes had to include smoking behaviour in young people under the age of 25 years.
Data collection and analysis: Information relating to the characteristics and the content of community interventions, participants, outcomes and methods of the study was extracted by one reviewer and checked by a second. Studies were combined using qualitative narrative synthesis.
Main results: Seventeen studies were included in the review, 46 studies did not meet all of the inclusion criteria. All studies used a controlled trial design, with six using random allocation of schools or communities. Of thirteen studies which compared community interventions to no intervention controls, two, which were part of cardiovascular disease prevention programmes, reported lower smoking prevalence. Of three studies comparing community interventions to school-based programmes only, one found differences in reported smoking prevalence. One study reported a lower rate of increase in prevalence in a community receiving a multi-component intervention compared to a community exposed to a mass media campaign alone. One study reported a significant difference in smoking prevalence between a group receiving a media, school and homework intervention compared to a group receiving the media component only.
Reviewer's conclusions: There is some limited support for the effectiveness of community interventions in helping prevent the uptake of smoking in young people.