Understanding Vape Marketing Study

Browse trials for

• Vaping 402
• Adolescent Behavior 305

Keywords

• e-cigarette
• vaping
• tobacco
• nicotine
• adolescent
• counter-marketing
• digital content
• digital education interventions

Vaping

402 studies on the registry are indexed under Vaping; 95 are open to participants now.

This study's planned enrollment of 46 is below the median of 120 across 65 observational studies indexed under Vaping.

Lead sponsor

Boston Children's Hospital is the lead sponsor of 608 studies on the registry; 147 are open to participants now.

Of its 32 completed or terminated interventional studies of FDA-regulated products, 19 (59%) have results posted.

Study population

Eligibility criteria

Groups and cohorts

• Working group members

  10 members of the expert working group: 2 middle school students, 2 high school students, 2 young adults, 1 educator, 1 parent, and 4 curriculum design expert

  Other: Working group

• Focus group participants

  36 adolescent/young adult participants

  Other: Focus group

Interventions

• OtherWorking group

  Participants will: 1) take a 10-min demographic survey; 2) join 3 x 60-min working group meetings in which they will review preliminary results, collaborate on curriculum design, and provide feedback; and 3) respond to prompts in 3 emails (approx 5-10 mins each).

• OtherFocus group

  Participants will take a 10-min demographic survey and join 1 x 30-min focus group meeting in which they will provide feedback on the curriculum in development.

Primary outcomes

1. Development of an e-cigarette counter-marketing lesson focused on the retail environment

   Key messages and message-delivery strategy will be developed, potentially comprising of short-form videos. The study team will ask working group members to rank draft messages and strategies for delivery in addition to eliciting qualitative information.

   Time frame: At 6 months

Other outcomes

1. Feasibility: Preferred recruitment advertisement

   Self-reported data and/or qualitative data elicited from participants by prompting: Which Instagram advertisement made you interested to join this study?

   Time frame: Baseline (pre-focus group)

2. Acceptability: Relevance to population(s)

   Qualitative data elicited from participants by prompting: How participants feel about relevance to and representation of age group and e-cigarette use status (e.g., "this message is not for me since I don't vape" or "I would not be interested," helpfulness of content to achieve different tobacco prevention goals such as raising awareness, prevention)

   Time frame: During baseline focus group

3. Acceptability: Desired improvements

   Qualitative data elicited from participants by prompting: How would you improve the messages? What changes would you make?

   Time frame: During baseline focus group

4. Perceived influence of content: Awareness

   Qualitative data elicited from participants by prompting: How helpful was it to include \[key message in development\] to raise awareness about e-cigarettes and e-cigarette marketing?

   Time frame: During baseline focus group

5. Perceived influence of content: Reducing appeal

   Qualitative data elicited from participants by prompting: How helpful was it to include \[key message in development\] to prevent adolescents from liking e-cigarette products?

   Time frame: During baseline focus group

6. Perceived influence of content: Purchase behaviors

   Qualitative data elicited from participants by prompting: How helpful was it to include \[key message in development\] to prevent/reduce e-cigarette purchase?

   Time frame: During baseline focus group

7. Perceived influence of content: Use prevention

   Qualitative data elicited from participants by prompting: How helpful was it to include \[key message in development\] to prevent/reduce adolescent e-cigarette use?

   Time frame: During baseline focus group

8. Feasibility: Device used to access lessons

   Qualitative data elicited from participants by prompting: Device most commonly used to access similar online/video content

   Time frame: During baseline focus group

9. Feasibility: Duration of engagement with components

   Average time in minutes to engage with draft messages, and study activities

   Time frame: During baseline focus group

10. E-cigarette use

    A survey will ask participants, "Have you ever tried any of the following products, even one or two puffs?" (Yes/No). If "Yes," participants will see the question, "During the past 30 days, did you use any of the following products, even one or two puffs? (Yes/No)." If "Yes," participants will see the question, "On how many days out of the past 30 days, did you use a…" with a numeric response from 0-30 (drop-down option where participants could select only one response). If participants provided an answer from 1-30 to this question, the survey will ask, "In the past 7 days, on how many days did you use an e-cigarette or vape?" with a numeric response from 0-7 (drop-down option where participants could select only one response). (Products include:nicotine vape, THC (marijuana) vape, some kind of vape (don't know what was in it), cigarette, and nicotine pouch).

    Time frame: Baseline (pre-focus group)

11. Susceptibility to Use E-cigarettes

    A survey will ask participants 4 questions adapted from the Enhanced susceptibility to smoking index, (1) "Have you ever been curious about e-cigarettes/vapes?; (2) "Do you think you will try an e-cigarette/vape in the next month?;" (3) Do you think you will try an e-cigarette/vape in the next year?; and (4) "If one of your best friends were to offer you an e-cigarette/vape, would you try it?" with responses on a 4-point Likert-type scale (Definitely yes; Probably yes; Probably not; and Definitely not). Across all 4 questions, any participant response except "Definitely not" will be classified as susceptible to using e-cigarettes.

    Time frame: Baseline (pre-Focus Groups)

12. Acceptability: Perceptions of anti-vaping educational content or counter-marketing

    The facilitator will ask participants about perceptions of anti-vaping ads, specifically inside and around retail stores

    Time frame: During focus groups

13. Marketing receptivity inside and around retail stores

    A survey and the focus group facilitator will ask about perceptions of e-cigarette brand recall among adolescents, appealing locations of advertising, ownership of merchandise, and receipt of free samples

    Time frame: At Baseline (pre-Focus groups) and During Baseline Focus Groups

14. Feedback on counter-marketing messages

    The facilitator will ask participants: 1) Could you describe what was interesting or engaging? Probes: How would you improve what you just saw? What changes would you make? Comments on: a) individualized delivery; b) influencer-style; c) message? 2) Are there parts you would recommend excluding? Why? 3) How relevant was it to you? To people your age? 4) Was the language used easy to understand? 5) How does this messaging compare to what you have already seen? 6) How helpful was it to include the messages on marketing? a) raise awareness; b) prevent adolescents from liking products; c) prevent/ reduce e-cigarette purchase (in stores); d) prevent/ reduce e-cigarette purchase or sharing (with friends/family); and prevent/ reduce e-cigarette use? 7) If you were trying to prevent someone from starting to vape, what could be effective: a) aspects about vaping that you could bring up?; b) language that you could use?; c) images that you could use?; d) appeals that you could use?

    Time frame: During baseline focus groups

Individual participant data

Plan to share: Yes — De-identified participant survey data will be made available.

Supporting information: Study protocol, Statistical analysis plan

Time frame: De-identified data will be made available only after study publication (between 14-24 months after the end of the study).

Access criteria: The Principal Investigator will provide data to those who indicate that they have received approval from an Institutional Review Board (IRB) or appropriate ethics committee, and execute a data use/sharing agreement.