SYKE was a school-based childhood life skills developing and problem solving program based on a program called FRIENDS, which is about preventing childhood anxiety and depression through the application of firm cognitive behavioural principles and the building of emotional resilience. Program started in 2005 by planning the SYKE program in collaboration with Universities of Helsinki and Tampere, City of Helsinki Education Department, City of Helsinki School and Health Care, Children of the Station. In 2006 we started to pilot FRIENDS program, which is developed in Australia, and the evidence behind FRIENDS concludes that it is an effective treatment and prevention program for childhood anxiety and depression. Aim was to test whether this kind of program fits well into Finnish school system. Students in grade 5 of three comprehensive schools in Helsinki participated in the program; four classes as experimental group and two as control group. Program included ten lessons in autumn term 2006 and two booster lessons in spring term 2007. Lessons targeted to develop life skills to cope with difficult situations and to build emotional problem solving abilities. Parental program included two evenings for parents, where parents were informed about the program and its aims. Control schools had a curriculum as usual. Results show that program fit well into Finnish schools. Teachers, pupils and their parents liked the program. Students reported to gain some impact from the program, such as they learnt to recognize their feelings and how to cope with negative feelings better. Now that FRIENDS program is well fit into Finnish schools and collaboration network has been established the program’s future plan is to increase number of participatory schools each year. Contact person: Marjaana Pennanen
The program was a three-year smoking prevention programme in secondary schools in Helsinki. The program was part of the European Smoking prevention Framework Approach (ESFA), in which Denmark, Finland, the Netherlands, Portugal, Spain and the UK participated. In Finland 27 secondary schools in Finland participated in the programme (n=1821). Schools were randomised into experimental (13) and control groups (14). The program started in 1998 and finished 2001. The programme included 14 information lessons about smoking and refusal skills training. The three-year smoking prevention programme was also integrated into the standard curriculum. The community-element of the programme included parents, parish confirmation camps and dentists. The schools in the experimental group received the prevention programme and the schools in the control group received the standard health education curriculum. Impact of this program was that among baseline never smokers (60.8%), the programme had a significant effect on the onset of weekly smoking in the experimental group when compared to the control group. This program shows that a school-and community-based smoking prevention programme can prevent smoking onset among adolescents. Evaluation of the program still continues. Contact person: Marjaana Pennanen
KTL conducts research on methods of preventing tobacco use and develops intervention methods in collaboration with other research parties and organisations. KTL is monitoring tobacco use of adults and dependency at national level and carries wide number of risk assessment and mortality studies on tobacco related diseases (avtk).
The research project, that is done in collaboration with the Swedish National Public Health Institute (Folhälsoinstitutet, FHI), aims to compare the use of tobacco products and its related socio-demographic factors in Finland and Sweden. The data used is the Health Behaviour and Health among Finnish Adult Population -survey from Finland and a corresponding survey data from Finland. Contact person:
Kristiina Patja
a) Changes in tobacco use and cessation in last two decades and their implications to current situation
b) Assessment of distribution of contents of tobacco dependency at population level
c) Validation and usability of tobacco dependency measures at population level and at practice
d) Smoking career and identities as a part of social dependency
e) Attitudes and practices in health care personnel on tobacco and smoking cessation
f) Interventions in health care
g) Telephone and web services in smoking cessation and their applications
h) Tobacco policy evaluation in Finland
Contact person:
Kristiina Patja
In recent years, smoking cessation on the Internet has been developed as a new method in the area of smoking prevention. The project "Smoking cessation on the Internet in the EU countries" was carried out in years 2005-2007. The project aimed to map European smoking cessation web-services and to develop criteria for high-quality services. The two-year project was coordinated by the ENQ (European Network of Quitlines) and executed by the KTL. Primarily the project was planned to benefit the background organisations and specialists for web-cessation, as well as memebers of the ENQ. The project was co-financed by the EU Public Health Programme. The evaluation tool is to be found at:
enqonline.org/evaluationtool. Contact person:
Hanne Heikkinen
This research project looks into tobacco use and attitudes towards tobacco as well as issues related to tobacco prevention and cessation in the clinical work of health professionals in Finland. The study is conducted in collaboration with the Universities of Kuopio and Helsinki, Finnish Medical Association the Finnish Union of Public Health Nurses. The previous ‘Physicians and Tobacco’ –studies were conducted in 1990, 1995 and 2001 and the ‘Nurses and Tobacco’ –study in 1995. All physicians and nurses of working age are included in the study. The survey was distributed as a mailed questionnaire. KTL is responsible for project coordination and analysing and reporting the data. Contact person: Patrick Sandström.
The aim of the project is to produce internet based educational material and tools for undergraduate, specialist- and continuous education of health professionals as well as to increase collaboration between actors in the health care system. A functioning chain of care improves availability of services and saves health care system resources.
The tool kit includes knowledge about health effects of tobacco and tobacco cessation as well as facts regarding the initiation and mechanisms of addiction. The course has been tailored for use by physicians, dentists, pharmacists and nurses. The course was built using the University of Kuopio Moodle course management system.
The project is a joint collaboration between KTL, University of Kuopio, and Savonia University of Applied Sciences. Contact person: Patrick Sandström.