Real world evaluation of the smoking cessation services in the Rio de Janeiro municipality, Brazil.

Introduction: In recent years, there has been a growing recommendation for process evaluation of the smoking cessation programmes in the world. This study sought to evaluate smoking cessation services, with special attention to the degree to which public health care facilities adhere to governmental standards of practice.

Methods: A cross-sectional study examined smoking cessation services by using a key-informant approach.

Constructing and pre-testing an instrument to assess smoking cessation services within the Brazilian public health system.

Rationale, Aims And Objectives: Assessing public health interventions is crucial for the development of public policies. Currently, there is no instrument to assess the inputs, activities and short-term outcomes of the smoking cessation programme in the Brazilian public health system. This study reports the development of a questionnaire for that purpose and assesses its suitability.

Contextual factors associated with smoking among Brazilian adolescents.

Background: Very few studies have examined the role of school, household and family contexts in youth smoking in middle-income countries.

Methods: This work describes smoking exposure among 59,992 high school students who took part in the Brazilian Survey of School Health and investigates contextual factors associated with regular smoking, defined as smoking cigarettes at least once in the past 30 days. The explaining variables were grouped into: socio-demographic characteristics, school context, household context and family rapport.

[Smoking exposure among school children in Brazil].

The article describes the prevalence of tobacco exposure among adolescents at the National Adolescent School-based Health Survey (PeNSE) and investigates socio-demographic and behavioral factors associated with smoking. The profile of a current smoker was defined as reporting having smoked at least one cigarette in the previous 30 days. The socio-demographic characteristics studied were age, sex, race/skin color, mother education, household assets index and school (public or private).

Prevalence and risk factors associated with smoking among school children, Southern Brazil.

Objective: To estimate the prevalence of smoking among students and associated factors.

Methods: Secondary data from the Vigescola Survey, conducted in the cities of Curitiba, Florianópolis and Porto Alegre (Southern Brazil) between 2002 and 2004, were used. Sample comprised 3,690 school children, aged between 13 and 15 years, and enrolled in the 7th and 8th grades of primary school and 1st grade of high school, in public and private schools.

Linking Global Youth Tobacco Survey (GYTS) data to the WHO Framework Convention on Tobacco Control (FCTC): the case for Brazil.

Objective: The Global Youth Tobacco Survey (GYTS) in Brazil was developed to provide data on youth tobacco use to the National Tobacco Control Program.

Method: The GYTS uses a standardized methodology for constructing sampling frames, selecting schools and classes, preparing questionnaires, carrying out field procedures, and processing data. The GYTS questionnaire is self-administered and includes questions about: initiation; prevalence; susceptibility; knowledge and attitudes; environmental tobacco smoke; cessation; media and advertising.

Determinants of salivary cotinine level: a population-based study in Brazil.

Objective: A cross-sectional population-based study was conducted to assess, in active smokers, the relationship of number of cigarettes smoked and other characteristics to salivary cotinine concentrations.

Methods: A random sample of active smokers aged 15 years or older was selected using a stepwise cluster sample strategy, in the year 2000 in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil. The study included 401 subjects.