[Evaluation of smoking prevention programs]

To be generalized, preventive or curative health actions must be efficient. Unfortunately, at this moment in France few promoters of anti-smoking actions have tried to demonstrate the efficiency of the programmes they had proposed. Any evaluation aimed at demonstrating the efficacy of a programme (experimental situation) or its routine applicability requires, like all scientific works, formulation of the objectives, choice of the adequate methodology and list of the tools needed for the analysis. Two levels must be evaluated: the process which includes feasibility, acceptability and efficiency, and the results expressed in terms of changes in behaviour and incidence of target diseases. A few actions which have been evaluated include sensitization by the media, therapeutic assistance in withdrawal, education in schools and legal actions; they are commented in this article.