Work

A brief digital screening tool to address parental and adolescent tobacco and electronic cigarette use in paediatric medical care in Canada: a pilot randomized controlled trial

Year: 2026

Type: article

Abstract: BACKGROUND: Tobacco use is a strong risk factor for premature mortality and morbidity. We assessed the feasibility of screening and recruiting participants for a randomized controlled trial (RCT) of a facilitated referral intervention to promote smoking and vaping cessation among parents and children (CanCEASE). METHODS: We conducted a pilot RCT of CanCEASE in five outpatient pediatric clinics in Montreal, Canada. We recruited parents (≥ 18 years) and adolescents (14-17 years) who reported smoking or vaping in the 7 days prior to recruitment. Our primary outcome was the number of participants recruited and randomized per day of recruitment (> 0.6/day). Secondary outcomes included interest in cessation resources (binary, at least one resource requested by the end of participation at 6 months) and participant retention (≥ 60% at 6 months). Descriptive statistics are presented, and outcomes are compared between parent and adolescent participants using chi-square tests. RESULTS: There were 118 days of recruitment across 5 clinics spread over 95 calendar days, resulting in enrollment of 53 adolescents and 74 parents in the study, with the majority being female. Recruitment rates were 0.56 participant/day of recruitment for adolescents and 0.78 participant/day of recruitment for parents. Interest in specific cessation resources was low overall. Retention rate at 6 months was 52.8% (95% confidence interval: 43.7-61.6) and higher among adolescents (vs. parents) and females (vs. males). CONCLUSIONS: Our study demonstrated the feasibility of screening and recruiting parents and adolescents for a smoking and vaping cessation trial. However, strategies to increase interest in cessation resources and retention rates would improve the odds of success of an effectiveness trial. TRIAL REGISTRATION: This pilot study is registered at ClinicalTrials.gov (ID: NCT05366790 ). It was submitted on May 4, 2022. Protocol information is available at ClinicalTrials.gov.

Source: Pilot and Feasibility Studies

DOI: 10.1186/s40814-026-01782-1