• XavierLuiz Eduardo De FreitasLEhttp://orcid.org/0000-0003-2759-2870School of Medicine, Federal University of Ouro Preto, Ouro Preto, Brazil., Breno Bernardes-Souza, Oscar Campos Lisboa, Werner Seeger, David Alexander Groneberg, Thien-An Tran, Fabian Norbert Fries, Paulo César Rodrigues Pinto Corrêa, and Titus Josef Brinker.
• School of Medicine, Federal University of Ouro Preto, Ouro Preto, Brazil.
• JMIR Res Protoc. 2017 Jan 30; 6 (1): e16.

BackgroundSmoking is the largest preventable cause of morbidity and mortality in Brazil. Education Against Tobacco (EAT) is a large network of medical students in 13 countries who volunteer for school-based prevention in the classroom setting. A recent quasi-experimental EAT study conducted in Germany showed significant short-term smoking cessation effects on 11- to 15-year-old adolescents.ObjectiveThe aim of this study is both to describe and to provide the first randomized long-term evaluation of the EAT intervention involving a photoaging app for its effectiveness to reduce the smoking prevalence among 12- to 17-year-old pupils in Brazilian public schools.MethodsA randomized controlled trial will be conducted among approximately 1500 adolescents aged 12 to 17 years in grades 7-11 of public secondary schools in Brazil. The prospective experimental study design includes measurements at baseline and at 6 and 12 months postintervention. The study groups will consist of randomized classes receiving the standardized EAT intervention (90 minutes of mentoring in a classroom setting) and control classes within the same schools (no intervention). The questionnaire measures smoking status, gender, social, and cultural aspects as well as predictors of smoking. Biochemical validation of smoking status is conducted via random carbon monoxide measurements. The primary end point is the difference of the change in smoking prevalence in the intervention group versus the difference in the control group at 12 months of follow-up. The differences in smoking behavior (smoking onset, quitting) between the 2 groups as well as effects on the different genders will be studied as secondary outcomes.ResultsThe recruitment of schools, participating adolescents, and medical students was conducted from August 2016 until January 2017. The planned period of data collection is February 2017 until June 2018. Data analysis will follow in July 2018 and data presentation/publication will follow shortly thereafter.ConclusionsThis is the first evaluative study of a medical student-delivered tobacco prevention program in Brazil and the first randomized trial on the long-term effectiveness of a school-based medical student-delivered tobacco prevention program in general.ClinicaltrialClinicalTrials.gov NCT02725021; https://clinicaltrials.gov/ct2/show/NCT02725021 (archived by WebCite at http://www.webcitation.org/6njy3nNml).©Luiz Eduardo De Freitas Xavier, Breno Bernardes-Souza, Oscar Campos Lisboa, Werner Seeger, David Alexander Groneberg, Thien-An Tran, Fabian Norbert Fries, Paulo César Rodrigues Pinto Corrêa, Titus Josef Brinker. Originally published in JMIR Research Protocols (http://www.researchprotocols.org), 30.01.2017.

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