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The #Tamojunto Drug Prevention Program in Brazilian Schools: a Randomized Controlled Trial

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Abstract

A randomized controlled trial was conducted in 2014 with 7th and 8th grade students from 72 public schools in 6 Brazilian cities. This trial aimed to evaluate the effects of an adapted European school-based drug prevention program Unplugged, called #Tamojunto in Brazil, which was implemented by the Ministry of Health as part of public policy. The experimental group (n = 3340) attended 12 classes in the #Tamojunto program, and the control group (n = 3318) did not receive a school prevention program. Baseline data were collected prior to program implementation, and follow-up data were collected 9 months later, allowing a matching of 4213 adolescents in both waves. The substances examined were alcohol, tobacco, marijuana, inhalants, cocaine, and crack. Multilevel analyses were used to evaluate the changes in consumption of each drug between time points and between groups. The intervention and control groups had similar baseline characteristics. The mean age of the adolescents was 12.5 ± 0.7 years, and 51.3% were female. The program seemed to increase alcohol use initiation (first alcohol use); students in the experimental group had a 30% increased risk of initiating alcohol use during the 9-month follow-up (aRR = 1.30, 95% confidence interval (95%CI) 1.13–1.49, p < 0.001) compared to the control group. The opposite was found for the first inhalant use: the risk of using inhalants for the first time after baseline was lower in the experimental group (aRR = 0.78, 95%CI 0.63–0.96, p = 0.021) than the control group. The results of the #Tamojunto program suggest that the content and lessons regarding alcohol may enhance curiosity about its use among adolescents. We suggest a re-evaluation of the expansion of the #Tamojunto program in schools while analyzing why the program’s effects were inconsistent with those of previous European studies.

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Acknowledgments

This research was supported by a grant from the Brazilian Ministry of Health (TED 89/2014). We thank the school directors, teachers, field researchers, and especially the students who participated. The authors contributed substantially to the scientific work and therefore share collective responsibility and accountability for the results.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Department of Preventive Medicine, Section of Epidemiology, Universidade Federal de São Paulo, Rua Botucatu, 740, 4th floor, São Paulo, SP, 04023-900, Brazil

    Zila M. Sanchez, Juliana Y. Valente, Ana Paula D. Pereira & Joselaine I. Cruz

  2. Department of Preventive Medicine, Section of Biostatistics, Universidade Federal de São Paulo, São Paulo, SP, Brazil

    Adriana Sanudo & Solange Andreoni

  3. Department of Psychology, Universidade Federal de Santa Catarina, Florianópolis, SC, Brazil

    Daniela Schneider

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  1. Zila M. Sanchez
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  2. Juliana Y. Valente
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  3. Adriana Sanudo
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  4. Ana Paula D. Pereira
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  5. Joselaine I. Cruz
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Correspondence to Zila M. Sanchez.

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Funding

This study was funded by the Brazilian Ministry of Health through the TED 89-2014 (PI: Dr. Sanchez).

Conflict of Interest

The authors declare that they have no conflicts of interest.

Human Participants and/or Animals

All procedures in the present study were in accordance with the ethical standards of the institutional and/or national research committee and with the 1964 Helsinki Declaration and its later amendments or comparable ethical standards. This study was approved by the Ethics in Research Committees at the University of São Paulo (#473.498) and the Federal University of Santa Catarina (#711.377).

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Informed consent to participate in the study was obtained from all of the participants.

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Sanchez, Z.M., Valente, J.Y., Sanudo, A. et al. The #Tamojunto Drug Prevention Program in Brazilian Schools: a Randomized Controlled Trial. Prev Sci 18, 772–782 (2017). https://doi.org/10.1007/s11121-017-0770-8

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