CATCH My Breath for Vaping Prevention
What You Need to Know Before You Apply
What is the purpose of this trial?
Vapes (also called e-cigarettes) have increased in popularity among youth in Canada and the United States. Youth who try vaping are at risk of becoming addicted and continuing to vape. To help combat the rise in vaping, there is an urgent need to identify effective ways to prevent youth from experimenting with vaping. Because of the novelty of vapes, there are few school-based programs targeting vaping. This study will investigate whether a vaping prevention curriculum called 'CATCH My Breath' (CMB) prevents high school students from starting to vape.
The investigators will recruit 28 schools in Ontario, Canada into the intervention group, and students at these schools will be presented with the CMB curriculum by Public Health Unit staff. CMB is an evidence-based program that includes two 60-minute lessons that provide students with information about social norms related to vaping, health risks of vaping, media literacy, and in-class activities to practice refusal skills. Students will complete an online survey before being exposed to the curriculum, 3-months later, and 12-months later. The vaping behaviours of these students will be compared to students in a separate study of youth health (i.e., the COMPASS study) who are not given the curriculum.
Evidence from this study will identify whether students exposed to CMB are less likely to start and continue vaping. If effective, CMB can be easily delivered in high schools across Canada in order to reduce the number of students who vape.
Who Is on the Research Team?
Adam Cole, PhD
Principal Investigator
Ontario Tech University
Are You a Good Fit for This Trial?
Inclusion Criteria
Exclusion Criteria
What Are the Treatments Tested in This Trial?
Interventions
- CATCH My Breath
How Is the Trial Designed?
2
Treatment groups
Experimental Treatment
Active Control
CATCH My Breath (CMB) is a school-based vaping prevention curriculum based on best practices from earlier prevention studies that works by fostering social competence and social influence resistance skills. The curriculum design and content targets two key constructs of Social Cognitive Theory: self-efficacy and behavioural capacity (i.e., knowledge and skills). The curriculum provides students with knowledge of why and how to resist vaping. It is delivered through two 60-minute lessons by a trained Public Health Unit presenter. The curriculum lessons provide information about: 1) the physical, mental, and addiction risks associated with vaping, 2) social norms of vaping (e.g., most youth don't vape), 3) media literacy (e.g., how to recognize and decipher marketing of vapes), 4) strategies to resist and avoid vaping, 5)school and provincial policies about vaping. To solidify the content, in-class activities allow students to discuss what they are learning and practice refusal skills.
In Ontario, the current Health and Physical Education curriculum does not include any vaping-specific information, leaving it up to the discretion of educators to decide what to teach and how. The study takes advantage of existing connections to the COMPASS study. The large sample of schools participating in the COMPASS study provides an ideal comparison group, eliminating the need to recruit schools for this condition and reducing costs. The COMPASS study collects information about changes to school programs, policies, and the built environment that may occur over time using the School Policies and Practices survey. This survey is completed annually by a school contact knowledgeable about the school's health-related programs and policies. School contacts are asked whether the school offers any programs that address vaping and tobacco use prevention/cessation. This information will be used to identify schools that have not implemented any vaping/tobacco use programs.
Find a Clinic Near You
Who Is Running the Clinical Trial?
University of Ontario Institute of Technology
Lead Sponsor
University of Waterloo
Collaborator
CATCH Global Foundation
Collaborator
The University of Texas Health Science Center, Houston
Collaborator
Ontario Agency for Health Protection and Promotion
Collaborator
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