Recruiting

Observational Study

Sponsor:

University of Georgia

Code:

NCT05447325

Conditions

Message Exposure (Sequence: Regular Then Flavor)

Message Exposure (Sequence: Flavor Then Regular)

No Message Exposure (Control Condition)

Eligibility Criteria

Sex: All

Age: 18 - 29

Healthy Volunteers: Accepted

Interventions

Exposure to Anti-Vaping Messages (generic themes then flavor-specific themes)

Exposure to Anti-Vaping Messages (flavor-specific themes then generic themes)

Exposure to Anti-Vaping Messages (no message exposure)

Study Details

Brief summary:

180 young adult vapers who are not current smokers will participate in a baseline functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI) experiment, prospectively linked to a 1-year randomized controlled trial. Baseline fMRI tasks will probe critical neurocognitive markers with high potential to account for individual differences in nicotine use prognosis and responsiveness to anti-vaping public service announcements (PSAs). Participants will be assigned randomly to a survey-only control condition, or one of two intervention orders, Regular PSA then Flavor PSA, and Flavor PSA then Regular PSA (n=60 each) in a 1-year counterbalanced crossover design. Every week intervention groups will receive anti-vaping PSAs either do not specifically address harms associated with vaping flavors (regular PSAs) or PSAs with a theme focusing on the harms of flavored vape products (flavor PSAs). Participants of the intervention groups will switch PSA exposure condition after 6 months. Their evaluations of the PSAs will be assessed with brief weekly online surveys. The links to the weekly online surveys will be sent via e-mail and text which allow them to access the surveys using any device with an internet browser. During the survey, the PSA of that week will first be displayed to PSA groups (n=120), followed by a query to provide message evaluation. Afterward, the survey questions will also assess their e-cigarette, cigarette, other tobacco use, and nicotine dependence, during the past week. The control group (n=60) will complete the surveys without viewing PSAs. In-person assessments at 3, 6, 9, and 12 months will biochemically confirm nicotine exposure.

Conditions

Message Exposure (Sequence: Regular Then Flavor)

Message Exposure (Sequence: Flavor Then Regular)

No Message Exposure (Control Condition)

Study ID

NCT05447325

Start date

Jul 15, 2022

Status verified date

Mar, 2026

Completion date

Jul 31, 2026

Anticipated

Primary completion date

Jul 31, 2026

Anticipated

Eligibility Criteria

Eligibility Criteria

Sex: All

Age: 18 - 29

Healthy Volunteers: Accepted

Inclusion Criteria:

  • used e-cigarettes or other vaping devices at least 3 days during the past 30 days
  • did not smoke a cigarette, even one or two puffs, during the past 30 days
  • Magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) compatible and safe

Exclusion Criteria:

  • used e-cigarettes or other vaping devices for less than 3 days during the past 30 days
  • any use of cigarettes during the past 30 days
  • history of a major neurological, psychiatric, or medical disorder
  • MRI contraindications

Study Design

Enrollment

180 participants

Anticipated

Allocation

Randomized

Intervention Model

Crossover

Primary purpose

Treatment

Interventions and Outcome Measures

Arms

experimental: Message exposure (sequence: regular PSAs then flavor PSAs)

Participants randomly assigned to this arm will receive weekly emails and text messages of regular PSAs (i.e., focused in general on the negative consequences of vaping) for the first 6 months of the study, and will then receive weekly emails and text messages of flavor PSAs (i.e., focused specifically on harms and negative consequences associated with vaping flavored e-cigarette products) for the second 6 months of the study.

experimental: Message exposure (sequence: flavor PSAs then regular PSAs)

Participants randomly assigned to this arm will receive weekly emails and text messages of flavor PSAs (i.e., focused specifically on harms and negative consequences associated with vaping flavored e-cigarette products) for the first 6 months of the study, and will then receive weekly emails and text messages of regular PSAs (i.e., focused in general on the negative consequences of vaping) for the second 6 months of the study.

experimental: No message exposure (control condition)

Participants will not be receiving any PSA exposure over the 12 months.

Interventions

Exposure to Anti-Vaping Messages (generic themes then flavor-specific themes)

Messages are in the format of public service announcement (PSA) images that contain both textual (1-2 brief sentences) and illustrative visual components. The messages are designed to educate the participants about the harms and costs associated with e-cigarette use (e.g., negative health consequences, undesirable social perceptions, etc.). Half of the messages focus specifically on the harms and costs associated with using flavored vape products, while the other half address vaping harms broadly (i.e., not specifically focus on those related to flavored vaping). Participants in this arm will receive anti-vaping messages through emails and text messages every week. Specifically, over the course of a year, during the first six months, they will receive generic/regular PSAs that address vaping harms more broadly; during the second six months, they will receive flavor-specific PSAs that address vaping harms specifically associated with the use of flavored vape products.

Exposure to Anti-Vaping Messages (flavor-specific themes then generic themes)

Messages are in the format of public service announcement (PSA) images that contain both textual (1-2 brief sentences) and illustrative visual components. The messages are designed to educate the participants about the harms and costs associated with e-cigarette use (e.g., negative health consequences, undesirable social perceptions, etc.). Half of the messages focus specifically on the harms and costs associated with using flavored vape products, while the other half address vaping harms broadly (i.e., not specifically focus on those related to flavored vaping). Participants in this arm will receive anti-vaping messages through emails and text messages every week. Specifically, over the course of a year, during the first six months, they will receive flavor-specific PSAs that address vaping harms specifically associated with the use of flavored vape products; during the second six months, they will receive generic/regular PSAs that address vaping harms more broadly.

Exposure to Anti-Vaping Messages (no message exposure)

Participants will not receive any message intervention in this arm.

Primary outcome measure

  • Self-report monthly smoking severity [ Time Frame: 12 months ]
  • Self-report monthly vaping severity [ Time Frame: 12 months ]
  • Exhaled carbon monoxide (CO) levels [ Time Frame: 12 months ]
  • Urine cotinine levels [ Time Frame: 12 months ]

Central Contacts and Locations

Central contacts

Jiaying Liu, PhD

949-241-0652jiaying.liu@uga.edu

Locations

UGA Bio-imaging Research Center

Recruiting

Athens, Georgia, United States, 30602

Contacts

Kim Mason

kmason@uga.edu

More Information

Sponsor

University of Georgia

Last update posted

Apr 3, 2026

Last verified

Mar, 2026

Keywords

  • health message intervention
  • randomized controlled trial

Trial information was received from ClinicalTrials.gov and was last updated on 2026-09-10. This information was provided to ClinicalTrials.gov by University of Georgia on 2026-04-03.