http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/23659684

Psychol Health Med. 2013 May 10. [Epub ahead of print]

How soon they forget: changes to beliefs after learning about tobacco.

Wisniewski MG, Bartone A, Hastrup JL, Coutinho MV, Geer M, Simms LJ.

Source

a Psychology , University at Buffalo, The State University of New York , Buffalo , NY , USA.

Abstract

University students' beliefs about tobacco and nicotine were assessed before an educational intervention aimed at correcting tobacco-related misinformation. Beliefs were again measured immediately after the intervention, and then again after a 2-, 4-, 6-, or 8-week retention interval. Initially, participants showed significantly more accurate beliefs about tobacco than pre-intervention, but this improvement decreased after the retention interval. Results suggest that methods currently used in an attempt to alleviate tobacco misinformation in the public may be effective for short-term, but not long-term retention. The current study accents the need to design tobacco programs that optimize retention of belief change so that people may use that knowledge confidently in future health-related decisions.