Address Tobacco Use Among Adolescents in Hong Kong

Changing Social Norms Around Smoking: A Cluster Randomized Controlled Trial to Address Tobacco Use Among Adolescents in Hong Kong

This study will examine the effectiveness of a social norms campaign in correcting smoking misperceptions, reducing smoking susceptibility and changing smoking-related behaviours in Hong Kong adolescents.

Study Overview

• Status: Unknown
• Conditions: Tobacco Use
• Intervention / Treatment: Behavioral: Social norms campaign

Detailed Description

The study involves a behavioural intervention with social norms approaches to correct smoking misperceptions, reduce smoking susceptibility and change smoking-related behaviours in Hong Kong adolescents. A 2-arm stratified clustered randomised controlled trial (RCT) will be conducted to evaluate the effectiveness of the intervention. A total of 18 secondary schools will be randomly selected from the 5 regions in Hong Kong and invited to the RCT. The schools will then be randomly allocated to intervention or control group in the ratio of 1:1. Secondary 1 to 5 (US Grade 7 to 11) students will be invited. Students in both intervention and control group will complete a baseline survey, and the intervention group will receive the intervention after the baseline. Intervention materials includes posters and table tents at school, flyers to students, and online banner on school website. The intervention adopts social norms approaches, and will highlight the prevalence of adolescents who do not smoke and have no intention to smoke. It will last for 2 months. Both intervention and control groups will complete follow-up surveys at 3 and 9 months. The control group will receive the intervention materials after the RCT.

• Study Type: Interventional
• Enrollment (Anticipated): 12868
• Phase: Not Applicable

Contacts and Locations

Study Locations

• Hong Kong
  • Hong Kong, Hong Kong
    • Local secondary schools

Participation Criteria

Eligibility Criteria

• Ages Eligible for Study: 11 years to 20 years (ADULT, CHILD)
• Accepts Healthy Volunteers: Yes
• Genders Eligible for Study: All

Description

Inclusion Criteria:

• Local secondary schools that cover grades 1-6

Exclusion Criteria:

• International secondary schools
• Special schools for adolescents with visual, hearing or other physical impairments or disabilities

Study Plan

How is the study designed?

Design Details

• Primary Purpose: PREVENTION
• Allocation: RANDOMIZED
• Interventional Model: PARALLEL
• Masking: NONE

Number of Arms

2

Arms and Interventions

Participant Group / Arm	Intervention / Treatment
EXPERIMENTAL: Intervention; Students in the schools assigned to the intervention group will receive the intervention after the baseline survey. The intervention will be a social norms campaign involving posters, table tents, flyers and an online banner.	Behavioral: Social norms campaign; Intervention messages will mainly highlight the prevalence of Hong Kong adolescents who do not smoke cigarettes and have no intention to smoke cigarettes. The messages will be conveyed to students through posters, table tents, flyers and an online banner. Posters will be posted at prominent places in schools, table tents will be placed in school canteens, flyers will be distributed to students, and the online banner will be placed at the school website. The intervention will last for 2 months.
NO_INTERVENTION: Control; Students in the schools assigned to the control group will not receive anything during the randomised controlled trial. They will receive the intervention materials after the trial.

What is the study measuring?

Primary Outcome Measures

Outcome Measure	Measure Description	Time Frame
Perceived adolescent smoking prevalence	Perceived prevalence of current smoking secondary school students in Hong Kong	At the time of survey
Smoking susceptibility	Intention to smoke in the next 12 months, if good friends are smoking in front, and if a good friend offered a cigarette	At the time of survey

Secondary Outcome Measures

Outcome Measure	Measure Description	Time Frame
Smoking intensity	Number of smoking days in the past 30 days, average daily cigarette consumption	Past 30 days
Intention to quit	Intention to quit	At the time of survey
Quit attempts	Number of quit attempts	Past 3 months

Collaborators and Investigators

• Sponsor: The University of Hong Kong
• Investigators: Principal Investigator: Sai Yin Ho, Dr, The University of Hong Kong

Study record dates

Study Major Dates

• Study Start (ACTUAL): October 13, 2017
• Primary Completion (ANTICIPATED): July 1, 2018
• Study Completion (ANTICIPATED): July 1, 2018

Study Registration Dates

• First Submitted: August 24, 2017
• First Submitted That Met QC Criteria: August 24, 2017
• First Posted (ACTUAL): August 28, 2017

Study Record Updates

• Last Update Posted (ACTUAL): May 3, 2018
• Last Update Submitted That Met QC Criteria: May 1, 2018
• Last Verified: May 1, 2018

More Information

Terms related to this study

• Keywords: Adolescent; Smoking; Randomised controlled trial; Social norms
• Other Study ID Numbers: 17629016

Plan for Individual participant data (IPD)

• Plan to Share Individual Participant Data (IPD)?: NO

Drug and device information, study documents

• Studies a U.S. FDA-regulated drug product: No
• Studies a U.S. FDA-regulated device product: No