RESUMO
BACKGROUND: Though rates of tobacco smoking have decreased consistently over the past 3 decades, cigarette use remains the top preventable cause of premature death in North America. The Clinical Effort Against Secondhand Smoke Exposure (CEASE) is a medical clinic-based intervention that systematically screens parents for tobacco use and offers them direct access to evidence-based smoking cessation services. While the effectiveness of CEASE for parents who smoke has already been demonstrated in the United States, the CEASE model has not yet been tested in Canada, among parents who use e-cigarettes, or among adolescents who use cigarettes and e-cigarettes. OBJECTIVE: We aim to demonstrate the feasibility and evaluate the preliminary effectiveness of the CEASE program for parental smoking cessation and its adapted version for adolescent smoking cessation and adolescent and parental vaping cessation. METHODS: We will approach parents or guardians of children aged between 0 and 17 years, as well as adolescent patients aged between 14 and 17 years, from a tertiary care pediatric hospital in Montreal, Quebec, Canada, for participation in this single-blinded, pilot randomized controlled trial. Eligible participants are those who report using tobacco cigarettes or e-cigarettes at least once in the last 7 days and present to an outpatient pediatric clinic for a scheduled appointment. Our recruitment target is 100 participants: 50 parents or guardians of children aged 17 years or younger, and 50 adolescents aged between 14 and 17 years. The feasibility of implementation of the CEASE model will be measured by recruitment and retention rates for all 4 participant groups (stratified as follows: parents who use cigarettes, parents who use e-cigarettes exclusively, adolescents who use cigarettes, and adolescents who use e-cigarettes exclusively). Parent and adolescent participants within each group are randomized to the intervention and control groups using a 1:1 ratio through a computer-generated randomization list. Preliminary effectiveness outcomes include self-reported smoking and e-cigarette cessation, use of cessation resources, changes in smoking and e-cigarette use, motivation to quit, and quit attempts among participants. Participants complete electronic questionnaires on a tablet in the clinic at baseline as well as electronic follow-up questionnaires at 1, 3, and 6 months. Individuals reporting successful quit attempts are invited to provide a urine sample for cotinine testing to biochemically confirm quit. Analyses include descriptive statistics as well as exploratory trajectory analyses of smoking, e-cigarette use, and motivation to quit. RESULTS: Research activities began in June 2022. Participant enrollment and data collection began in February 2023 and are expected to be completed in 15 months. CONCLUSIONS: There is a strong need for effective and cost-effective smoking and vaping cessation interventions for parents and adolescents. If successful, this study will help inform the preparation of a fully powered randomized controlled trial of CEASE in Canada in these populations. TRIAL REGISTRATION: Clinicaltrials.gov NCT05366790; https://www.clinicaltrials.gov/study/NCT05366790. INTERNATIONAL REGISTERED REPORT IDENTIFIER (IRRID): DERR1-10.2196/47978.
RESUMO
In recent years, nudges to improve health behaviors have generated growing public health interest, as a promising and inexpensive intervention approach. Most nudging intervention reviews have examined nudges targeting adults, with few focusing on children. We aimed to review the literature on nudges designed to improve children's sedentary behaviors, physical activity, and sleep, and to identify existing gaps in scientific knowledge. We screened the literature for experimental and quasi-experimental studies written in French or English reporting on nudging interventions designed to improve physical activity, sedentary or sleep behavior in children aged 2-12. No setting restrictions were applied. Data extracted included setting, population, health behavior and method of measurement (reported vs measured or observed). The search was performed in June 2021 and yielded 3768 results, of which 17 articles met inclusion criteria. Most included studies aimed to improve physical activity, seven targeted sedentary behavior and only one was directed at sleep. Home or school settings were the most common. Most studies were RCTs, reported a positive effect and presented multicomponent interventions, including both nudges and non-nudge aspects. Interventions targeting the decision structure were the least represented type of nudges among our sample. Our results show a paucity of research investigating nudges aimed at improving pediatric physical activity, sedentary behavior, and sleep. Interventions using nudges alone were even fewer, highlighting the need to study this promising type of intervention to improve lifestyle behaviors of children.
