Development of UP2UTeacher for High School Youth (UP2UTeacher)

October 1, 2026 updated by: Melissa Little, PhD, MPH, University of Virginia

Pilot Testing an Anti-Tobacco Intervention to Reduce Tobacco and Nicotine Use Among High School Students and Determine Feasibility

Tobacco use is increasing among youth in the U.S. However evidence for the long-term effectiveness of tobacco prevention and cessation programs for youth is limited. The current study seeks to adapt and evaluate a universal group-based youth brief tobacco intervention for 9th grade students.

This study will use a sequential, multi-method research design beginning with qualitative roundtable discussions with 9th grade students to adapt an existing young adult brief tobacco intervention for youth. Roundtable discussions with students will identify salient intervention themes and strategies for targeting the intervention and developing the text messages. The second phase of the study evaluates the brief intervention, UP2UTeacher, through a cluster randomized controlled trial that compares UP2UTeacher to a no treatment control. It is hypothesized that the UP2UTeacher will reduce tobacco use at the 12-month follow-up compared to the no treatment control.

Roughly 90% of daily smokers started before the age of 18, and 2,000 youth smoke a cigarette for the first time each day in the U.S. Additionally, e-cigarette use is on the rise among youth, and is linked to cigarette initiation among tobacco naïve youth. In order to curb the rise of tobacco use among youth, interventions that are easily implemented and easily disseminated need to be developed for youth addressing currently available products and contemporary patterns of use. If the interventions in the current study are proven efficacious, they can easily be disseminated to other schools to continue reducing youth tobacco use.

Study Overview

Status

Completed

Conditions

Intervention / Treatment

Study Type

Interventional

Enrollment (Actual)

520

Phase

  • Not Applicable

Contacts and Locations

This section provides the contact details for those conducting the study, and information on where this study is being conducted.

Study Locations

    • Virginia
      • Charlottesville, Virginia, United States, 22904
        • University of Virginia

Participation Criteria

Researchers look for people who fit a certain description, called eligibility criteria. Some examples of these criteria are a person's general health condition or prior treatments.

Eligibility Criteria

Ages Eligible for Study

14 years to 15 years (Child)

Accepts Healthy Volunteers

Yes

Genders Eligible for Study

All

Description

Inclusion Criteria:

  • Enrolled in the selected physical education or health class selected for participation in the study.

Exclusion Criteria:

  • None

Study Plan

This section provides details of the study plan, including how the study is designed and what the study is measuring.

How is the study designed?

Design Details

  • Primary Purpose: Prevention
  • Allocation: Randomized
  • Interventional Model: Parallel Assignment
  • Masking: None (Open Label)

Arms and Interventions

Participant Group / Arm
Intervention / Treatment
No Intervention: No Treatment Control
Experimental: UP2UTeacher

Youth Brief Tobacco Intervention

The universal prevention program was designed as a group intervention to include components of effective tobacco control programs for youth and young adults. The intervention lasts approximately 45 minutes and is delivered in a classroom setting, utilizing a Socratic teaching style and evoking participation using the principles of motivational interviewing. UP2UTeacher targets all tobacco products with the goals to enhance motivation for youth to quit tobacco or remain tobacco-free, reduce intentions to use tobacco, promote peer discussions around the impact of using tobacco, and correct cognitive misperceptions around tobacco use.

Other Names:
  • Youth Brief Tobacco Intervention

What is the study measuring?

Primary Outcome Measures

Outcome Measure
Measure Description
Time Frame
Past 30-day Tobacco Use
Time Frame: past 12 months

The primary outcome measure in this study is self-reported past 30-day use of cigarettes, e-cigarettes, smokeless tobacco, hookah, cigars, little cigars, cigarillos, pipe tobacco, nicotine pouches and dissolvables. Past 30-day use will be determined for each product by asking participants, "In the past 30 days, did you use the following products?" with response options of "Every day" or "Some days" determining tobacco use.

past 12 months

Secondary Outcome Measures

Outcome Measure
Measure Description
Time Frame
Lifetime Tobacco Use
Time Frame: past 12 months

The secondary outcome measure in this study is self-reported lifetime use of cigarettes, e-cigarettes, smokeless tobacco, hookah, cigars, little cigars, cigarillos, pipe tobacco, nicotine pouches and dissolvables. Lifetime use will be determined for each product by a "Yes" response to the question, "In your lifetime, have you ever tried the following products, even once or twice?" at the 12-month follow-up.

past 12 months

Collaborators and Investigators

This is where you will find people and organizations involved with this study.

Sponsor

Collaborators

Publications and helpful links

The person responsible for entering information about the study voluntarily provides these publications. These may be about anything related to the study.

Study record dates

These dates track the progress of study record and summary results submissions to ClinicalTrials.gov. Study records and reported results are reviewed by the National Library of Medicine (NLM) to make sure they meet specific quality control standards before being posted on the public website.

Study Major Dates

Study Start (Actual)

April 4, 2022

Primary Completion (Actual)

October 31, 2024

Study Completion (Actual)

February 28, 2026

Study Registration Dates

First Submitted

May 20, 2022

First Submitted That Met QC Criteria

May 24, 2022

First Posted (Actual)

May 31, 2022

Study Record Updates

Last Update Posted (Actual)

October 6, 2026

Last Update Submitted That Met QC Criteria

October 1, 2026

Last Verified

October 1, 2026

More Information

Terms related to this study

Other Study ID Numbers

  • SBS4719

Plan for Individual participant data (IPD)

Plan to Share Individual Participant Data (IPD)?

UNDECIDED

Drug and device information, study documents

Studies a U.S. FDA-regulated drug product

No

Studies a U.S. FDA-regulated device product

No

This information was retrieved directly from the website clinicaltrials.gov without any changes. If you have any requests to change, remove or update your study details, please contact register@clinicaltrials.gov. As soon as a change is implemented on clinicaltrials.gov, this will be updated automatically on our website as well.