Date of Publication

2022

Project Team

Melanie Keiffer, DNP, APRN, ANP-BC, CNE, Alyssa Consigli, RD, CPHQ, & Barbara Frankowski, MD, MPH

Abstract

Purpose: Vaping rates among adolescents are at an all-time high. Misperceptions about the harms of vaping may limit parents’ ability to impact youth vape use. This project developed and tested an evidence-based toolkit to educate parents of adolescents about the risks of vaping.

Methods: The toolkit’s creation was informed by published evidence and multimedia content delineating the scope of the vaping crisis. The toolkit was reviewed and revised by content experts. Pre- and post-implementation assessments were created and tested with faculty members, public health professionals, teachers, and parents. Assessments were utilized to evaluate parental vaping knowledge before and after implementation of the toolkit. The assessments and final version of the toolkit were deployed electronically to parents from a private high school in a mid-size city. Quantitative data analysis was performed using Excel, while qualitative data was evaluated based on word frequency in nVivo.

Results: Incremental increases in parents’ ability to identify a vape device and comfort discussing vaping with youth were noted in test responses (n=13). Qualitative pre-test data demonstrated a willingness of parents to discuss vaping with their adolescents.

Conclusions: Reduction of adolescent vaping remains a meaningful public health target with important implications for reducing the prospective healthcare needs and expenses of this population. With pilot project response rate negatively impacted by the COVID-19 pandemic, the association between parental knowledge and teen vaping should be further examined with a larger sample. The toolkit remains a valuable web-based resource for parents and teachers to address the teen vaping crisis.

Document Type

Project

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