Photoaging smartphone app promoting poster campaign to reduce smoking prevalence in secondary schools: the Smokerface Randomized Trial: design and baseline characteristics.
Smoking is the largest cause of preventable death globally. Most smokers smoke their first cigarette in early adolescence. We took advantage of the widespread availability of mobile phones and adolescents' interest in appearance to develop a free photoaging app which is promoted via a poster campaign in secondary schools. This study aims to evaluate its effectiveness regarding smoking prevalence and students' attitudes towards smoking.



A randomised controlled trial is conducted with 9851 students of both genders with an average age of 12 years in grades 6 and 7 of 126 secondary schools in Germany. At present, cigarette smoking prevalence in our sample is 4.7%, with 4.6% of the students currently using e-cigarettes (1.6% use both). The prospective experimental study design includes measurements at baseline and at 6, 12 and 24 months postintervention via a questionnaire plus a random cotinine saliva sample at 24 months postintervention. The study groups consist of randomised schools receiving the Smokerface poster campaign and control schools with comparable baseline data (no intervention). The primary end point is the difference of change in smoking prevalence in the intervention group versus the difference in the control group at 24 months follow-up. Longitudinal changes in smoking-related attitudes, the number of new smokers and quitters and the change in the number of never-smokers will be compared between the two groups as secondary outcomes.



Ethical approval was obtained from the ethics committee of the University of Gießen and the ministries of cultural affairs, both in Germany. Results will be disseminated at conferences, in peer-reviewed journals, on our websites and throughout the multinational Education Against Tobacco network.



NCT02544360, Pre-results.
Universities of Gießen and Marburg Lung Center (UGMLC); Member of the German Center for Lung Research (DZL), Justus-Liebig-University of Gießen, Gießen, Germany.
Titus J
0000-0002-3620-5919
TJ
Brinker
Universities of Gießen and Marburg Lung Center (UGMLC); Member of the German Center for Lung Research (DZL), Justus-Liebig-University of Gießen, Gießen, Germany.
Julia
J
Holzapfel
University of Duisburg-Essen, Essen, Germany.
Tanja G
TG
Baudson
University of Freiburg, Freiburg im Breisgau, Germany.
Katharina
K
Sies
University of Freiburg, Freiburg im Breisgau, Germany.
Lena
L
Jakob
University of Freiburg, Freiburg im Breisgau, Germany.
Hannah Maria
HM
Baumert
Technical University of Munich, Munich, Germany.
Marlene
M
Heckl
Technical University of Munich, Munich, Germany.
Ana
A
Cirac
University of Bonn, Bonn, Germany.
Janina L
JL
Suhre
Universities of Gießen and Marburg Lung Center (UGMLC); Member of the German Center for Lung Research (DZL), Justus-Liebig-University of Gießen, Gießen, Germany.
Verena
V
Mathes
Saarland University Medical Center and Saarland University Faculty of Medicine, Homburg, Germany.
Fabian N
0000-0002-8526-4712
FN
Fries
Saarland University Medical Center and Saarland University Faculty of Medicine, Homburg, Germany.
Hannah
H
Spielmann
Massachusetts General Hospital, Boston, Massachusetts, USA.
Nancy
N
Rigotti
Universities of Gießen and Marburg Lung Center (UGMLC); Member of the German Center for Lung Research (DZL), Justus-Liebig-University of Gießen, Gießen, Germany.
Werner
0000-0003-1946-0894
W
Seeger
Pulmonary and Respiratory Critical Care Medicine, Thoraxklinik and Translational Lung Research Center Heidelberg (TLRCH), Member of the German Center for Lung Research (DZL), University of Heidelberg, Heidelberg, Germany.
Felix
F
Herth
Institute of Occupational Medicine, Social Medicine and Environmental Medicine, Goethe-University, Frankfurt, Germany.
David A
DA
Groneberg
Department of Cardiology and Pneumology, University Medical Centre, Göttingen, Germany.
Tobias
T
Raupach
Universities of Gießen and Marburg Lung Center (UGMLC); Member of the German Center for Lung Research (DZL), Justus-Liebig-University of Gießen, Gießen, Germany.
Henning
H
Gall
Pulmonary and Respiratory Critical Care Medicine, Thoraxklinik and Translational Lung Research Center Heidelberg (TLRCH), Member of the German Center for Lung Research (DZL), University of Heidelberg, Heidelberg, Germany.
Claudia
C
Bauer
Division of Public Health Sciences, Cancer Prevention Research Program, Fred Hutchinson Cancer Research Center, Seattle, Washington, USA.
Pat
P
Marek
Department of Psychiatry and Psychotherapy, University Hospital of Tübingen, Tübingen, Germany.
Anil
A
Batra
Department of Government, Faculty of Arts and Sciences, Harvard University, Cambridge, Massachusetts, USA.
Chase H
CH
Harrison
University of Erlangen-Nuremberg, Erlangen, Germany.
Lava
L
Taha
Universities of Gießen and Marburg Lung Center (UGMLC); Member of the German Center for Lung Research (DZL), Justus-Liebig-University of Gießen, Gießen, Germany.
Andreas
A
Owczarek
Universities of Gießen and Marburg Lung Center (UGMLC); Member of the German Center for Lung Research (DZL), Justus-Liebig-University of Gießen, Gießen, Germany.
Felix J
FJ
Hofmann
University of Calgary, Health Sciences Centre, Calgary, Alberta, Canada.
Roger
R
Thomas
Division of Clinical Epidemiology and Aging Research, German Cancer Research Center (DKFZ), Heidelberg, Germany.
Ute
U
Mons
Pulmonary and Respiratory Critical Care Medicine, Thoraxklinik and Translational Lung Research Center Heidelberg (TLRCH), Member of the German Center for Lung Research (DZL), University of Heidelberg, Heidelberg, Germany.
Michael
M
Kreuter
D000293:Adolescent; D000375:Aging / Q000187:drug effects*; D002648:Child; D005260:Female; D005858:Germany / Q000453:epidemiology; D006801:Humans; D008297:Male; D057175:Posters as Topic; D015995:Prevalence; D011446:Prospective Studies; D012572:School Health Services; D000068997:Smartphone; D012907:Smoking / Q000453:epidemiology*; D016540:Smoking Cessation / Q000379:methods*; D012984:Software
Smokerface; mobile apps; photoaging; schools; tobacco prevention