Understanding Vape Marketing Study

Launched by BOSTON CHILDREN'S HOSPITAL · Aug 11, 2025

Keywords

ClinConnect Summary

This study is in the early stages and is aimed at creating a short, video-based lesson to help prevent teens from starting to use e-cigarettes. It’s an observational project that will gather ideas and feedback rather than test a medicine or device. The team will run a working group of 10 experts (including middle and high school students, young adults, a parent, a teacher, and curriculum designers) and conduct focus groups with about 36 adolescents and young adults. Through online meetings and surveys, they will review messages, screens, and ideas about e-cigarette marketing in stores, and work to develop a counter-marketing lesson to raise awareness and reduce interest and use.

If you or your child is eligible, you could participate in online focus groups or join the working group conversations. Focus group participants will be 13 to 21 years old, and the working group will include a broader age range (up to 29). The study will collect baseline surveys on vaping use and how susceptible participants feel to trying e-cigarettes, plus qualitative feedback during discussions about messages, images, and delivery. The project is based at Boston Children’s Hospital in Boston, MA, and enrollment is by invitation, with an estimated 46 total participants. The main goal is to have a developed counter-marketing lesson by about six months, with overall completion around April 2027. De-identified data may be shared after the study finishes.

Gender

ALL

Eligibility criteria

• • WORKING GROUP MEMBERS
• • \*Inclusion criteria
• Youth participants:
• • Middle school students may be 13-15 years
• • High schoolers may be 16-18 years
• • Young adults may be 19-29 years
• • Provide a phone number for at least one backup contact (e.g, parent/guardian)
• Curriculum design experts:
• • • Experience of at least 1 year in tobacco prevention or relevant public health field
• Parent:
• • • Parent of a child who has e-cigarette use history or is currently using (preferred, but not essential)
• Educator:
• • Currently employed as teacher at a middle/high school All participants
• • Provide their cell phone number and email address
• • Fluent in English
• • \*Exclusion criteria
• • Express inability to participate consistently across study working group meetings.
• • FOCUS GROUP PARTICIPANTS
• • \*Inclusion criteria
• • Adolescents and young adults ages 13-21 years
• • Fluent in English
• • Provide their cell phone number and email address
• • Provide a phone number for at least one backup contact