Trial on the Effect of E-cigarette Advertising on Cigarette Perceptions in Adolescents

September 5, 2025 updated by: Diane Gilbert-Diamond, Trustees of Dartmouth College

Does Exposure to Electronic Nicotine Delivery Systems Advertising Affect Positive Smoking Expectancies and Social Normative Beliefs About Smoking?

This research aims to investigate how exposure to advertising for Electronic Nicotine Delivery Systems (commonly called e-cigarettes) may lead to combustible smoking initiation in adolescents.

Study Overview

Status

Completed

Conditions

Intervention / Treatment

Detailed Description

[3/14/2020]: Study recruitment temporarily halted due to the COVID-19 pandemic

Study Type

Interventional

Enrollment (Actual)

139

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

  • United States
    • New Hampshire
      • Lebanon, New Hampshire, United States, 03756
        • Dartmouth-Hithchock Medical Center

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 17 years (Child)

Accepts Healthy Volunteers

No

Description

Inclusion Criteria:

-

Exclusion Criteria:

  • Exclusion criteria will include inadequate English proficiency, and diagnosis of a learning or vision disorder.

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: Factorial Assignment
  • Masking: Single

Arms and Interventions

Participant Group / Arm
Intervention / Treatment
Active Comparator: E-cigarette ad exposure
Participants in the e-cigarette ad exposure condition will view e-cigarette ads on the computer screen while having their eye movements tracked
Behavioral: E-cigarette ad exposure
Participants view a series of e-cigarette TV commercials
Sham Comparator: non e-cigarette ad exposure
Participants in the non e-cigarette ad exposure condition will view non e-cigarette ads on the computer screen while having their eye movements tracked
Other: non e-cigarette TV commercials
Participants view a series of non e-cigarette TV commercials

What is the study measuring?

Primary Outcome Measures

Outcome Measure
Measure Description
Time Frame
Implicit Positive Smoking Expectancies, Measured by the Implicit Association Test
Time Frame: within 5 minutes post intervention
Scores are measured by recording the amount of time (milliseconds) it takes to categorize smoking-related words with positive (e.g., cool) and negative (e.g., cancer) words. Faster reaction times when categorizing smoking-related words with positive words is evidence of higher positive smoking expectancies.
within 5 minutes post intervention
Amount of Time Spent Looking at Static Smoking Cues in E-cigarette Advertisements
Time Frame: approximately 30 minutes post intervention
Eye-tracking will be used to measure the amount of time (milliseconds) spent looking at static smoking cues in screen shots taken from e-cigarette advertisements. The amount time spent looking at a smoking cue is a measure how much attention was given to the smoking cue. The longer the looking time, the greater amount of attention.
approximately 30 minutes post intervention
Implicit Positive Vaping Expectancies, Measured by the Implicit Association Test
Time Frame: within 5 minutes post intervention
Scores are measured by recording the amount of time (milliseconds) it takes to categorize vaping-related words with positive (e.g., cool) and negative (e.g., cancer) words. Faster reaction times when categorizing smoking-related words with positive words is evidence of higher positive smoking expectancies.
within 5 minutes post intervention

Secondary Outcome Measures

Outcome Measure
Measure Description
Time Frame
Amount of time looking at dynamic smoking cues in e-cigarette advertisements
Time Frame: During the intervention, approximately 15 minutes post baseline
Eye-tracking will be used to measure the total amount of time spent looking in realtime at smoking cues in TV commercials for e-cigarettes. The amount of time looking at smoking cues will be a measure of the amount of attention given to smoking cues. The longer the amount of time spent looking at smoking cues indicates that a greater amount of attention was given to the smoking cues.
During the intervention, approximately 15 minutes post baseline
18-item scale that measures character attributes of actors that appeared in the commercials
Time Frame: approximately 30 minutes post intervention
Character Attributes will be collected using a scale that measures participants beliefs about character attributes using the lead in: "I think [Character Name] is: " using a 5-point Likert (1 = strongly disagree; 5 = strongly agree). There is a total of 6 attributes assessed: 1) smart (smart, intelligent, stupid), 2) successful (successful, achieves goals, gets what he/she wants), 3) attractive (physically attractive, ugly, good-looking), 4) funny (funny, humorous, makes me laugh), 5) respected (respected by others, receives approval, criticized by others), and 6) popular (has lots of friends, well liked, gets support from others). A total score (form 1 to 5) for each scale is calculated by averaging responses for each question within that scale. For each scale, a higher total score indicates higher beliefs about that attribute.
approximately 30 minutes post intervention
5-item scale that measure how much participants wish to be like the actors appearing in the commercials.
Time Frame: approximately 30 minutes post intervention
This 5-item is scale is used to quantify how much a participant would like to be like an actor appearing in a commercial. Questions are rated on a 5-point Likert scale (1 = Strongly Disagree; 5 = Strongly agree). A total identification score (from 1 to 25) is calculated by summing the responses to each question. A higher total score indicates a higher level of wishful identification.
approximately 30 minutes post intervention
13-item scale to measure risk perception about cigarette use
Time Frame: approximately 30 minutes post intervention
This 13-item scale measures risk perceptions associated with cigarette use. Questions are answered using a sliding percent scale from 0 - 100% in 10% increments. A risk perception scale is calculated (from 0 to 100) by averaging the responses to each question. Higher values indicate a higher risk perception.
approximately 30 minutes post intervention
13-item scale to Measure risk perception about e-cigarette use
Time Frame: approximately 30 minutes post intervention
This 13-item scale measures risk perceptions associated with e-cigarette use. Questions are answered using a sliding percent scale from 0 - 100% in 10% increments. A risk perception scale is calculated (from 0 to 100) by averaging the responses to each question. Higher values indicate a higher risk perception.
approximately 30 minutes post intervention

Collaborators and Investigators

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

Sponsor

Trustees of Dartmouth College

Collaborators

National Cancer Institute (NCI)
Dartmouth College

Investigators

  • Principal Investigator: James Sargent, MD, Geisel School of Medicine at Dartmouth College
  • Principal Investigator: Diane Gilbert-Diamond, ScD, Geisel School of Medicine at Dartmouth College

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.

General Publications

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)

February 4, 2019

Primary Completion (Actual)

December 9, 2021

Study Completion (Actual)

December 9, 2021

Study Registration Dates

First Submitted

December 20, 2018

First Submitted That Met QC Criteria

December 21, 2018

First Posted (Actual)

December 24, 2018

Study Record Updates

Last Update Posted (Estimated)

September 26, 2025

Last Update Submitted That Met QC Criteria

September 5, 2025

Last Verified

September 1, 2025

More Information

Terms related to this study

Keywords

Additional Relevant MeSH Terms

Other Study ID Numbers

  • D19034
  • 1R21CA232054-01 (U.S. NIH Grant/Contract)

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

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.

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