Adolescent Smoking Prevention Study

This study was conducted as part of another larger evaluation project looking at eHealth smoking prevention and behavior change using a randomized controlled trial. The study described here involved participants from one arm of this trial given that the other arm was intended to promote eHealth literacy, thus potentially confounding the results of the psychometric review. The study recruited 664 adolescents from 14 secondary schools in a large Canadian city. Students in grades 9, 10, and 11 were sampled from a variety of class types encompassing different subject areas (eg, physical education, computer science) and formats (eg, single sex and mixed sex classes). An attempt was made to involve a cross-section of schools in the study through active recruitment directly with school administrators and teachers. Schools were offered a modest stipend for their involvement, but no direct incentives were provided to individual students as the study was considered a part of classroom activities due to a fit with the curriculum. Ethical approval for the study was obtained from the ethical review boards or committees from the University of Toronto, Toronto Public Health (a project partner), and both of the participating school boards.