None listed
Conditions
Brief summary
Text-message based programmes have proven to be an effective public health approach to improve adolescent health behaviours, including tobacco use, and so may have promise as an approach to influence adolescent e-cigarette behaviours. Given this potential, we aim to conduct a randomised controlled trial to examine the potential effect of a text-message program to prevent adolescent e-cigarette use. Over 12 weeks, adolescents will receive text messages designed to address the factors identified that increase the risk of their use (e.g. to modify perceived social norms, or correct misconceptions of risk). Adolescent intentions to use e-cigarettes will be the primary outcome, assessed via a survey.
Interventions
A randomised controlled trial design will be used to test the effectiveness of a theory-based intervention to prevent e-cigarette use among adolescents aged 14 to 17 years in New South Wales, Australia.
Adolescents allocated to the intervention group will receive a 12-week theory-based intervention to prevent e-cigarette use. The intervention will consist of a library of text messages targeting adolescent e-cigarette use developed following extensive consultation with parents and adolescents v
A randomised controlled trial design will be used to test the effectiveness of a theory-based intervention to prevent e-cigarette use among adolescents aged 14 to 17 years in New South Wales, Australia. Adolescents allocated to the intervention group will receive a 12-week theory-based intervention to prevent e-cigarette use. The intervention will consist of a library of text messages targeting adolescent e-cigarette use developed following extensive consultation with parents and adolescents via focus groups, semi-structured interviews and online surveys, in addition to consultation with researchers and experts from the field of e-cigarettes and tobacco. The messages will target constructs within the Theory of Planned Behaviour (i.e. attitudes, subjective norms and perceived behavioural control), a theory frequently employed to guide the development of text-message based interventions to prevent and address adolescent tobacco use. The messages will be plain-text and will be sent to adolescents to target factors (I.e. barriers and enablers) associated with adolescent e-cigarette use, aligned to each of the Theory of Planned Behaviour constructs. Adolescents allocated to the intervention group will receive two text messages per week for one school term (12 weeks). The length of each text message will be 1-2 sentences. Analytics automatically captured by the text-message program used to disseminate the messages (e.g. read receipts) will be used to monitor adherence to the intervention.
Sponsors
University of Newcastle
Study design
Allocation
Randomised controlled trial
Intervention model
Parallel
Primary purpose
Prevention
Masking
Blinded (masking used) (Investigator, Outcomes Assessor)
Eligibility
Sex/Gender
All
Age
14 Years to 17 Years
Healthy volunteers
Yes
Inclusion criteria
Adolescents aged between 14 to 17 years, located within New South Wales, Australia, who have never used e-cigarettes will be eligible to participate.
Exclusion criteria
None
Outcome results
None listed