JMIR Publications

ABSTRACT

Introduction: Tobacco use remains a preventable cause of non-communicable diseases, yet adolescent-focused prevention is underused despite their susceptibility to health behavior formation (10-21 years). Our study addresses two key issues: adolescents' role as health catalysts is often overlooked in tobacco control, and home environments continue to expose adolescents to secondhand smoke (SHS) despite smoking bans in public spaces. We developed a real-time adaptive intervention combining school-family collaboration and online/offline delivery (WeChat mini-program, games and curricula). This trial evaluates the intervention's effectiveness in preventing smoking among adolescents and their families. Methods and analysis: We will recruit approximately 1,280 seventh-grade students (12-13 years old) from 9 secondary schools in Beijing’s Fengtai, Tongzhou, and Fangshan districts, with 142 students per school. The school-family collaborative, online and offline youth smoking prevention intervention includes seven interactive activities to raise awareness of tobacco harms, motivate action, teach skills to negotiate with adults about smoking at home, prevent student smoking, and ensure a smoke-free school. The control group will receive standard education. The PRISM framework will guide the evaluation at the recipients, provider, and health system levels. Using mixed methods, we will assess tobacco knowledge, smoking attitudes, smoking prevalence, cessation rates, and parental smoking situations. Ethics and dissemination: The trial has received ethics approval from the Ethics Committee of the Chinese Center for Disease Control and Prevention and Capital Medical University. The findings will help us prepare for the eventual scaling up of the intervention model. Trial registration number: ChiCTR2500108279