Authors: Darius Lotrean1,2, Natalia Rednic3
Affiliation
1 Faculty of Medicine, Iuliu Hatieganu University of Medicine and Pharmacy, Cluj-Napoca (Romania)
2 European Network on Smoking and Tobacco Prevention Youth Group (ENSP Next), European Network on Smoking and Tobacco Prevention Brussels (Belgium)
3 George Cosbuc National College, Cluj-Napoca (Romania)
Abstract
Background. Volunteering includes wide-ranging activities including one which contributes to the achievement of a shared goal in Tobacco Control, a Tobacco Free Generation by 2040 for which Voluntary Youth Engagement is crucial.
Aims. 1) Presentation of the involvement of high school students for the development and promotion of a video in support of the signature collection process of the European Citizen Initiative: Call To Achieve A Tobacco-Free Environment And The First European Tobacco-Free Generation By 2030, in order to offer examples and motivation for similar activities among youth. 2) Evaluation of the opinions of high-school students, teachers and parents from a high-school in Cluj-Napoca, Romania on volunteering and health promotion activities. 3) Assessment of the popularity of different topics related to health, nature, smoking and volunteering in Romania over the course of 7 years (Jan. 2016-Jan. 2023) using data from Google Trends.
Methods. A number of 7 high school students from George Coșbuc National College supported the European Citizen Initiative: Call To Achieve A Tobacco-Free Environment And The First European Tobacco-Free Generation By 2030 by filming a presentation video. The activity was presented during an event organised at school. A multiple-choice questionnaire was distributed among parents, teachers and students to assess their opinion on volunteering, activities to promote health and the factors that influence the choice to take part. Google Trends was used to assess topics of interest in the Romanian population (2016-2023). Relative Search Volume (RSV) is the measure that indicates the popularity of a topic (1-lowest- to 100 -highest).
Results. Out of 44 participants (27 Students, 7 Teachers and 10 Parents) the majority agreed that volunteering and health promotion activities are important for the self-development of school students. Parents and teachers estimated to a higher extent the impact parents and colleagues/friends have on the participation in such activities. Google Trends data showed that Nature and Health are favored over Smoking. Volunteering had the lowest RSV.
Conclusions. Volunteering is considered beneficial. Topics: Health and Nature are popular in Romania. Considering students’ interests, popular topics and trends is important for youth mobilization.
Keywords: youth, volunteering, health promotion, trends, high-school students, youth mobilization.
Volunteering and health promotion: high school students for a tobacco free generation
https://doi.org/10.26659/pm3.2024.25.2.102
