P1042 - Assessment of a five-session school-based curriculum on student perceptions and intent to try e-cigarettes

Introduction
Approximately one in three high school and one in ten middle school students are current tobacco users per national data in 2019. E-cigarettes are the most commonly used tobacco product by adolescents, with known health harms on the lungs, heart, blood vessels, brain and long-term effects from addiction. While educational school based curriculum are increasingly utilized with the goal of decreasing youth use of e-cigarettes, there have been limited studies on the impact of school-based educational curriculum on student perceptions and intent to try e-cigarettes. The purpose of this study is to assess the effectiveness of a five-session educational curriculum on middle and high school students’ perceptions about tobacco products and their intent to try tobacco products.
Method
A 5-session educational curriculum based on the Stanford Tobacco Prevention Toolkit (Toolkit) was delivered to school students in Alabama. Sessions focused on: 1) Health harms of tobacco products with emphasis on e-cigarettes; 2) Pod-based systems and JUUL, 3) Effects on the brain and nicotine addiction; 4) Contents in e-cigarettes and negative effects; and 5) why e-cigarettes matter to youth. Each session included 20-30 minutes of classroom instruction and 10-20 minutes for survey completion and attendance. Participant attendance was noted at every session. A pre- and post-survey assessed student perceptions about tobacco products and intent to try tobacco products. Students self-administered pen and paper surveys before the first session and after the fifth session, respectively. Descriptive statistics and a repeated measures ANOVA was used to assess the difference between perceptions about e-cigarette addictiveness and intent to try e-cigarettes at pre-test and at post-test.
Results
A total of 322 students participated in the five-session curriculum from schools in the Birmingham metro area in Alabama in February-March 2020. Of these students, 24% were in middle school and the remainder were in high school. Participant characteristics are summarized in Table 1. Post five-session curriculum, participant perceptions of the addictiveness of e-cigarettes (f(322)=42.25; p<0.001) and Juul increased significantly (f(322)=15.06; p<0.001); and participant intent to try e-cigarettes (f(322)=5.59; p<0.018) and Juul (f(322)=5.56; p<0.019) in the future reduced significantly (Table 2).
Discussion
A school-based, five session curriculum based on the Tobacco Prevention Toolkit is associated with increase in perceived addictiveness and decrease intent to try e-cigarettes and JUUL. Next steps would include comparison of the impact of the one session curriculum with the five session curriculum on perceptions and intent to try among middle and high school students and including a control group.