TY - JOUR T1 - 2020 Breathe-Zy Community Education Program Outcomes JF - Respiratory Care VL - 65 IS - Suppl 10 SP - 3440957 AU - Allen Brinkerhoff AU - Kimberly J. Bennion AU - Tyson Standifird Y1 - 2020/10/01 UR - http://rc.rcjournal.com/content/65/Suppl_10/3440957.abstract N2 - Background: Two counties in Utah had been reported as the nation’s highest e-cigarette users among youth. COPD continues to be the third largest cause of death in America. Education to youth is a vital tool that can help prevent youth vaping/tobacco use and emphasize health promotion in general. In 1995, the Breathe-zy Community Education program was created by an RT to teach youth about disease prevention, health promotion and raise awareness of RT as a profession. It has evolved as an annual student project to allow students to gain skills in community education, leadership and research. Methods: Sixth-grade students started with a pre-test as a control that evaluates the knowledge of students before Breathe-zy. A PowerPoint presentation taught students basic anatomy and physiology of the lungs, basic pathophysiology of asthma, and the negative effects of smoking/vaping. Interactive activities were utilized for education retention. Activities included: 1) making models of lungs, 2) asthma exacerbation where students played the parts of inflammation, bronchoconstriction and secretions, 3) ventilating healthy and unhealthy pig lungs which resembled a smoker’s lung, and 4) porcine lung dissection. The students then took the post-test to evaluate learning retention. Results: A total of 431 students from four schools completed the course. The correct answers were totaled for both pre-/post-tests. The pre-/post-scores had a mean score of 69% and 92% respectively. This was an increase of 23% from pre- to post-testing. When broken down into individual questions, the post-test showed improvement in total correct answers for each question in varying degrees. Each school had an increase of at least 20% from the pre-/post-testing (see Figure 1). A P-value of 0.000000087 is clearly < 0.05 which suggests our data is statistically significant. Conclusions: Based on the percent increase comparing pre-/post-testing, it is our impression the Breathe-zy Program increased health promotion, disease prevention and raised awareness of the RT profession. The RT student leads were granted an opportunity to learn the impact of community partnerships, leadership and research skills. We encourage anyone interested in starting this program to contact the authors who will provide all information and resources required to implement a program and support the course for RT students as an effective pulmonary community education program. Figure One: Breathe-zy Pre/Post Testing Outcomes ER -