Lipkus Submits NIH R01 Application

Kudos to Isaac Lipkus, professor, and his entire team for the submission of their NIH R01 application entitled "Effects of Risk Communication on Preventing Waterpipe Tobacco Uptake Among Susceptible Young Adults." This proposal requests funding for a three and a half year period with a start date of April 1, 2020. 

In the United States, about 25% of young adults are open to trying waterpipe tobacco (i.e., hookah); that is, they are susceptible to waterpipe tobacco smoking (WTS). Many will go on and experiment with WTS. This is a public health problem because WTS is harmful and addictive. Yet, susceptible young adults downplay harms and addictiveness of WTS, beliefs that promote initiating use. Thus, there is a pressing need to test risk messaging interventions to stop susceptible young adults from starting WTS. To this end, we found that four short videos on harms of WTS covering separately short- and long-term health effects, WTS myths, addiction, or second/third-hand smoke reduced susceptible young adults’ interest in WTS and increased negative health beliefs compared to those who did not see a video. We now wish to test how the number of these videos watched (i.e., dose) deters WTS initiation and mediators of effects.

The two primary aims are to: 1) Compare rates of WTS initiation during the 8-month trial by: a) number of WTS videos watched (0 to 3, test of linear trend); and b) Identify predictors of initiating WTS (e.g., perceived risks, attitudes, risk beliefs) and mediators of intervention effects. This study is impactful and innovative. We lack tests of strategies to prevent WTS targeting susceptible young adults, a high-risk group. This will be the first prospective RCT to test efficacy of dose using varied videos on WTS harms and mediators to prevent WTS initiation. If effective, these videos can be disseminated widely on social media (e.g., YouTube), the internet and health educational institutions.