Das weltweite Medizinernetzwerk Aufklärung gegen Tabak – Ehrenamtliche Prävention made in Germany

Smoking is the leading preventable cause of premature death in Germany. The network Education Against Tobacco (EAT) is an initiative that was founded in Germany in 2012, in which more than 3500 medical students and physicians engage in volunteer work in about 80medical faculties in 14countries. In this article, the concept, activities, objectives and associated research studies oft he EAT initiative are introduced.On the school level, the initiative addresses 10- to 15-year-old secondary school students. In addition to amultimodal approach, school visits use modern media such as facemorphing apps, which are not only used by students (45,000 per year in 14countries), but by atotal of over 500,000 other people as well. The effectiveness of the school-based intervention is currently being investigated in randomised long-term studies with 20,000 adolescents in Germany. Afirst long-term study demonstrated evidence of aprotective effect regarding the onset of smoking, especially among female students, students having alow level of education and students with amigratory background.The programme educates several hundred prospective physicians at 13 (of 28 participating) German medical faculties each year in science-based elective courses for the well-established smoking cessation counselling of patients and sensitises them to the tobacco epidemic. The approved members engage in dialogue with local members of the German house of representatives as Arzteverband Tabakpravention.EAT motivates the prospective generation of physicians, initially through prevention in school settings, to face the challenge of national tobacco control at the university and federal level