Impact of Vaping Prevention Advertisements
Condition: Vaping
Study type: Interventional

Summary: 
      The purpose of this randomized controlled trial is to determine whether exposure to vaping
      prevention advertisements (ads) reduce susceptibility to vaping among adolescents. Previous
      studies have been informative, but they have tended to be one-time experimental studies that
      do not replicate the repeated exposures to ads that people have in the real world. This study
      addresses this issue by repeatedly exposing participants to vaping prevention ads over time.
      Participants will be adolescents aged 13-17 who currently vape or who are susceptible to
      vaping.

      Participants will be randomly assigned to ad stimuli. They will be assigned to one of two The
      Real Cost trial arms-health harms or addiction-or to a control trial arm (probability of
      assignment is 1/3 for all trial arms). Participants in the study will take 4 online surveys
      over a 3-week period, once per week (At week 0, 1, 2, and 3). All participants will view
      randomized ad stimuli based on their trial arm and answer surveys items at each session.
    

Detailed description: 
      Tobacco prevention mass media campaigns are a key tool for reducing tobacco use among
      adolescents. While vaping has increased greatly among adolescents, there has been a dearth of
      research on effective communication strategies to reduce vaping. This study will test the
      impact of advertisements from the Food and Drug Administration's The Real Cost campaign on
      reducing susceptibility to vaping in a randomized controlled trial, illuminating whether such
      ads are effective as well as what themes are most effective (i.e., health harms, addiction).
      The investigators focus on adolescents (ages 13-17) who currently vape or are at risk of
      vaping.

      Setting: The trial will be a longitudinal online study with 4 surveys over a 3 week period -
      1 survey per week.

      Recruitment: Adolescent participants will be recruited through Qualtrics, an online survey
      panel platform. Interested prospective participants will complete a screening questionnaire
      to determine their eligibility. If eligible, Qualtrics will invite them to enroll in the
      trial.

      Informed Consent: Qualtrics will obtain parental consent online for adolescents who are
      eligible and interested in participating. After parental consent, adolescents will provide
      online assent prior to taking the survey.

      Randomization: After providing informed assent, Qualtrics survey software will randomly
      assign participants to one of the three trial arms. Participants will have an equal chance of
      being randomized to any of the 3 trial arms.

      Assessment: Participants in the study will take 4 surveys over a 3-week period. This will
      allow for multiple exposures to campaign ads. At week 0, randomize participants will be
      randomized to 1 of 2 FDA The Real Cost vaping prevention ad trial arms (health harms or
      addiction) or to a control arm (investigator created neutral ads about vaping). In each
      condition, participants will view 3 ads at each session, in a random order, corresponding to
      the theme they were assigned. At the first session (week 0), each participant will complete
      measures of vaping and smoking behavior, and will then view the ads that correspond to their
      trial arm. They will complete measures assessing message reactions after viewing each ad,
      followed by measures of susceptibility to vaping, vaping and smoking beliefs, and finally
      questions assessing demographics. For week 1 and 2 assessments, participants will complete
      measures of susceptibility to vaping, vaping and smoking beliefs, and vaping and smoking
      behavior. They will then view the same 3 ads from their trial arm and complete the message
      reactions measures. For the week 3 assessment, participants will only complete measures of
      susceptibility to vaping, vaping and smoking beliefs, and vaping and smoking behavior. Each
      survey will take approximately 15 minutes.
    

Intervention name(s): The FDA's The REal Cost vaping prevention ads - Health harms theme; The FDA's The Real Cost vaping prevention ads - Addiction theme; Neutral vaping ads
Intervention type(s): Behavioral; Behavioral; Behavioral
Intervention description(s): Three vaping prevention video ads from the FDA's The Real Cost prevention campaign about the health harms of vaping will be shown to participants at weeks 0, 1, and 2. Ads will be shown in a random order.; Three vaping prevention video ads from the FDA's The Real Cost prevention campaign about vaping addiction will be shown to participants at week 0, 1, and 2. Ads will be shown in a random order.; Three neutral (i.e., purely informational and without graphics) vaping video ads developed by the Investigators will be shown to participants at weeks 0, 1, and 2. Ads will be shown in a random order.
Allocation: Randomized
Intervention model: Parallel Assignment
Masking: None (Open Label)
Primary purpose: Prevention