Testing the Feasibility and Acceptability of Social Media and Digital Therapeutics to Decrease Vaping Behaviors

Phase 1

Not yet recruiting

• Conditions: Nicotine Vaping; Nicotine Use Disorder
• Interventions: Device: quitSTART Mobile Application; Behavioral: Chatbot Feature in quitSTART Mobile Application

• Registration Number: NCT05994209
• Lead Sponsor: Washington University School of Medicine

Brief Summary

Use of vaping products (e.g., electronic nicotine delivery systems, e-cigarettes) has been increasing rapidly, particularly among teens and young adults. With limited information on the long-term effects of vaping products, health information about vaping has been somewhat unclear in regards to associated health risks. Teens and young adults may be reluctant to disclose their use of vaping products to parents or health providers and instead turn to social media to share and seek out information regarding vaping risks and cessation supports. Thus, our current proposal outlines the use of social media to identify teens and young adults socially networking about vaping, the use of an online chatbot screen to evaluate individual cessation support needs, and the use of a digital intervention system to support vaping cessation. The mobile intervention used in this study is based on a widely-used evidence-based mobile intervention for combustible smoking (i.e., quitSTART) and has been adapted for vaping and young adults to include an in-app chatbot to guide users to tailored content and to motivate and encourage their cessation efforts. We aim to integrate our social media recruitment and online screening approach to connect individuals with this mobile app intervention, and will conduct a randomized controlled trial to evaluate user engagement with and preliminary efficacy of the digital intervention on reducing vaping behaviors among teens and young adults.

Detailed Description

Not available

Study Timeline

• Study First Submitted: 2023-08-08
• Study First Submitted QC: 2023-08-08
• Study First Posted: 2023-08-16
• Status Verified: 2025-03
• Last Update Submitted: 2025-03-27
• Last Update Posted: 2025-04-02
• Study Start: 2025-05
• Primary Completion: 2025-12
• Study Completion: 2026-06

Recruitment & Eligibility

• Status: NOT_YET_RECRUITING
• Sex: All
• Target Recruitment: 189

Inclusion Criteria

• US Resident
• English Speaking
• Have daily access to a smartphone
• Current vaping product user (P30D)
• Identified as socially networking about a desire to quit vaping and/or experiencing negative health outcomes due to vaping
• Vaping product user only (i.e., not using vaping as a means to support combustible smoking cessation)

Exclusion Criteria

Not provided

Study & Design

• Study Type: INTERVENTIONAL
• Study Design: PARALLEL

Arm && Interventions

Group	Intervention	Description
Experimental Group B: Mobile App Intervention with Embedded Chatbot Feature	Chatbot Feature in quitSTART Mobile Application	quitSTART Mobile Application Adapted for Vaping Cessation Among Young Adults Including Embedded Chatbot Feature
Experimental Group A: Mobile App Intervention	quitSTART Mobile Application	quitSTART Mobile Application Adapted for Vaping Cessation Among Young Adults
Experimental Group B: Mobile App Intervention with Embedded Chatbot Feature	quitSTART Mobile Application	quitSTART Mobile Application Adapted for Vaping Cessation Among Young Adults Including Embedded Chatbot Feature

Primary Outcome Measures

Name	Time	Method
Vaping cessation	Baseline, 6 weeks, 3 months	Vaping cessation as assessed by 7 day self-reported vaping abstinence at follow-up. Timeline follow back procedures will be used to establish abstinence or if participants lapsed (their first instance of vaping post quit) or relapsed (vaped on 7 consecutive days) at each follow up time point.

Secondary Outcome Measures

Name	Time	Method
Risk perception related to vaping	Baseline, 6 weeks, 3 months	Perceived risks of vaping, both general and conditional, will be assessed with two items adapted from Wackowski et al., 2020. "How harmful, if at all, do you think vaping/using an e-cigarette is to a user's health?" (general) and "Imagine you vaped/used e-cigarettes daily for the next 10 years and used no other tobacco product. How harmful do you think this vaping would be to your health?" (conditional), both using a five-point response scale (not at all-extremely harmful).
Nicotine dependence	Baseline, 6 weeks, 3 months	Nicotine dependence will be assessed using the 4-item Patient-Reported Outcomes Measurement Information System (PROMIS).
Intervention engagement	Baseline, 6 weeks, 3 months	Data automatically captured within the chatbot, and app platform will be used to calculate a composite measure of engagement for those randomized to each of these intervention components and will be examined as a predictor of outcomes. We will use a modified version of an app Engagement Index (EI).