The Children's Hospital at Dartmouth and Dartmouth Medical School collaborated on a new web site, NoSmokingRoom.org, to teach girls between the ages of 8 and 11 about the dangers of smoking. Ninety percent of smokers become addicted to nicotine before the age of 21, and young girls are more susceptible to nicotine addiction than boys, according to the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services.
Health professionals are generally less prepared to discuss tobacco-related health issues with 8- to 11-year-old girls, according to the site's creator Hank Bernstein, professor of pediatrics at DMS and a general pediatrician at CHaD.
"It was important for me to develop [the web site] to help girls at an early age understand the consequences of smoking in the hopes that they would never start," Bernstein said. "I have been involved in scholarly activities trying to promote health for children and families for many years."
Bernstein's work has mostly focused on educating health professionals, and this is the first attempt to reach out to children themselves, he said. Four years ago Bernstein launched PediatricsInPractice.org, a web site for health professionals offering health promotion techniques for children. In contrast, NoSmokingRoom was created for use directly by the girls themselves.
"Medical education is along a continuum," Bernstein said. "It's one thing to create modules for child health professionals; it's another thing to address the patient or the families directly."
In order to tailor the message to the young audience, Bernstein said, he contracted Girls Inc., a non-profit youth organization dedicated to empowering girls, to run focus groups across the country.
"We wanted to create this web site for girls, with the help of girls," Bernstein added.
A "Girlz Advisory" of nine pre-teen girls from the focus group worked with NoSmokingRoom's developers to make it age-appropriate and fun, Bernstein said. Jeannie Wong '09 and Courtney Otto '09 also worked on the site's development during their Presidential Scholar research assistantship last year. Wong, a biology major, said she chose to work on this project because she was interested in health education and promotion.
Currently, the site features interactive quizzes, polls and diaries to engage young girls in learning about the risks of smoking. It also displays e-cards and a community question board, which appeals to young girls' tendency to be social, according to Bernstein.
"We realized we had to grab their attention not just as individuals. Young girls that age discuss a lot of issues among their friends," Bernstein said.
He said he also hopes that girls will discuss the information on the web site with their parents.
"We expect that parents will support this site as well and help to facilitate their children's learning," Bernstein said.
The development of the web site was funded by a grant from Pfizer Inc., a pharmaceutical company. The grant recently expired, so NoSmokingRoom will need a source of income to produce its informational materials, but Bernstein is optimistic about the future of the web site.
"I just got a call from a teen magazine asking for materials that they can give out to some schools in Anaheim, Calif.," Bernstein said.
Bernstein hopes to promote the web site in Upper Valley schools and other youth programs as he strives to teach girls how to live smoke-free.
