Commentary on "Do Vaping Prevention Messages Impact Adolescents and Young Adults? A Meta-Analysis of Experimental Studies".

ABSTRACT

Preventing vaping by adolescents and young adults is unquestionably an important goal. Ma et al.'s meta-analysis invites the conclusion that vaping prevention messages are effective. This commentary discusses two concerns about that conclusion and the affiliated meta-analysis: (1) None of the analyzed effect sizes describes the effectiveness of vaping prevention messages; the effect sizes describe the difference in effectiveness (the difference on an outcome variable) between the two conditions being compared. (2) As the two conditions being compared vary, so do the relevant conclusions--but the review combines different kinds of comparisons.