London: Influential students trained to propagate anti-smoking messages among friends and peer groups can discourage the habit in schools, according to a recent study.

Evidence suggests that although teenagers associate with like-minded people engaging in similar behaviour, peer influence can be protective and harnessed for positive effect through education.

The study involved 11,000 students aged 12 and 13 years in 59 schools across western England and Wales, to propagate new norms of non-smoking behaviour among them.

Of these, 29 schools (5,372 students) were randomly assigned to the control group, and continued their normal smoking education, and 30 schools (5,358 students) were assigned to receive a special training programme in addition to their normal education. Follow-up data were collected immediately after the intervention and after one and two years.

Saliva samples were analysed as well as self-reporting to establish whether the young person had been smoking.

First, young people were asked to nominate influential students in their year group, and the most popular nominees were invited to a recruitment meeting.