Does the 'CATCH My Breath' Vaping Prevention Program Prevent High School Students in Ontario, Canada From Starting to Vape?

NCT06825338 | Active Not Recruiting

• 2 other identifiers: REB-18093PJT-195799
• Study Type: interventional
• Target: 5,600
• Locations: 1 country
• Sites: 8

Brief Summary

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.

Conditions

Vaping Behaviors

Keywords

Vaping Prevention; Adolescent; CATCH My Breath; E-cigarette use

Outcome Measures

Primary Outcomes (1)

• Number of participants that initiate vaping at 12-month follow-up

  One validated item will assess ever vaping: "Have you ever tried a vape, also known as an e-cigarette?", with response options 'Yes' and 'No'. This item is consistent with other youth health surveillance studies in Canada and the US and is already present in the COMPASS survey. The question will include a definition of vapes, including examples and images of common brands, to improve the validity of student responses. Students who respond 'No' at baseline will be categorized as 'Never vapers'. Students who never vaped at baseline who respond 'Yes' at follow-up will be categorized as 'Initiated vaping' (outcome of interest), while those who respond 'No' at follow-up will be categorized as 'Did not initiate vaping' (reference group).

  baseline and 12-month follow-up

Secondary Outcomes (3)

• Change in susceptibility to future vaping from baseline to 12-month follow-up

  baseline and 12-month follow-up

• Change in number of students reporting past 30-day vaping from baseline to 12-month follow-up

  baseline and 12-month follow-up

• Change in knowledge of vaping-related harms from baseline to 3- and 12-month follow-up

  baseline, 3-month, and 12-month follow-up

Study Arms (2)

CATCH My Breath (CMB)

EXPERIMENTAL

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.

Other: CATCH My Breath

Comparison

NO INTERVENTION

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.

Interventions

CATCH My Breath OTHER

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.

Also known as: Vaping prevention program, Vaping prevention curriculum

CATCH My Breath (CMB)

Eligibility Criteria

• Age: 13 Years - 19 Years
• Sex: all
• Healthy Volunteers: Yes
• Age Groups: Child (0-17), Adult (18-64)

You may qualify if:

• public and private schools in Ontario, English-speaking schools, include students in grades 9 through 12, operate in a standard school/classroom setting (i.e., not a virtual school)

You may not qualify if:

• non-English speaking schools, virtual schools, currently using the CATCH My Breath vaping prevention curriculum
• enrolled in the class in which the CATCH My Breath curriculum is being delivered
• not enrolled in the class in which the CATCH My Breath curriculum is being delivered

Sponsors & Collaborators

• CATCH Global Foundation: collaborator
• University of Ontario Institute of Technology: lead
• University of Waterloo: collaborator
• The University of Texas Health Science Center, Houston: collaborator
• Ontario Agency for Health Protection and Promotion: collaborator

Study Sites (8)

Hastings and Prince Edward District School Board

Belleville, Ontario, K8N3L3, Canada

Location

Keewatin-Patricia District School Board

Dryden, Ontario, P8N2Z6, Canada

Location

Rainy River District School Board

Fort Frances, Ontario, P9A1N3, Canada

Location

Lakefield College School

Lakefield, Ontario, K0L2H0, Canada

Location

Algonquin and Lakeshore Catholic District School Board

Napanee, Ontario, K7R4B2, Canada

Location

Renfrew County District School Board

Pembroke, Ontario, K8A4G4, Canada

Location

Thunder Bay Catholic District School Board

Thunder Bay, Ontario, P7C0A4, Canada

Location

Toronto District School Board

Toronto, Ontario, M2N7H3, Canada

Location

MeSH Terms

Conditions

Vaping

Condition Hierarchy (Ancestors)

Smoking; Behavior

Study Officials

• Adam Cole, PhD

  Ontario Tech University

  PRINCIPAL INVESTIGATOR

Study Design

• Study Type: interventional
• Phase: not applicable
• Allocation: NON RANDOMIZED
• Masking: NONE
• Purpose: PREVENTION
• Intervention Model: PARALLEL
• Sponsor Type: OTHER
• Responsible Party: PRINCIPAL INVESTIGATOR
• PI Title: Principal Investigator

Model Details: This is a two-arm quasi-experimental study. The study team will recruit schools that will implement the CATCH My Breath vaping prevention curriculum (intervention group). Results will be compared with a separate on-going study of youth health: the COMPASS study (comparison group). Schools recruited into the COMPASS study will not implement the CATCH My Breath vaping prevention curriculum.

Study Record Dates

• First Submitted: February 7, 2025
• First Posted: February 13, 2025
• Study Start: October 3, 2025
• Primary Completion (Estimated): April 1, 2028
• Study Completion (Estimated): April 1, 2028
• Last Updated: May 1, 2026

Record last verified: 2026-04

Data Sharing

• IPD Sharing: Will share
• Shared Documents: STUDY PROTOCOL
• Time Frame: IPD and supporting information will be uploaded to Borealis following data analysis and publication and will be stored indefinitely.
• Access Criteria: Anonymized data for students who have given permission for their data to be used for secondary research purposes will be available only to specific individuals upon request. The requests will be reviewed and approved by the PI.

Locations

CA (8)