Experience-oriented tobacco-use prevention lecture using a COPD-simulation mask for junior high school students

• We developed a mask that simulates the experience of having chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD).
• The tobacco-use prevention lecture with the pseudo-COPD experience improved adolescents’ attitude toward smoking.
• The pseudo-COPD experience could become a valuable part of tobacco-use prevention programs.

We recently developed a mask that simulates the experience of having one of the major diseases caused by tobacco smoking: chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD). Here we examined the effects of a tobacco-use prevention lecture accompanied by a pseudo-COPD experience created with this mask on adolescents’ attitude toward smoking. Junior high school students (12–13 years old, n = 165) in Japan were the subjects. The students attended a 30-min tobacco-use prevention lecture with slides and movie clips and engaged in a light exercise session wearing the COPD-simulation mask for 15 min. Before and after the lecture, the students’ attitudes toward smoking were evaluated by the Kano test for social nicotine dependence (KTSND). The total KTSND scores decreased significantly from 9.9 ± 4.4 (mean ± SD, n = 149) to 7.5 ± 5.3 (n = 144). Ninety-eight students wore the COPD mask, and their modified Borg scale scores increased significantly from 0.7 ± 1.0 to 3.2 ± 2.1 after exercise (P < 0.0001). To the questionnaire item “Do you think you understand the suffering of individuals with COPD?”, 24 and 51 students answered “definitely yes” and “yes”, whereas 16, 4 and 1 answered “Cannot say,” “no” and “definitely no”, respectively. The KTSND scores were significantly smaller in the former affirmative group compared to the latter negative group (P < 0.05). Of the 98 students who wore the simulation mask, 83 reported being satisfied with this pseudo-COPD experience. The tobacco-use prevention lecture with the pseudo-COPD experience created by the simulation mask was effective and safe.