School-based behavioral intervention to reduce the habit of smokeless tobacco and betel quid use in high-risk youth in Karachi: A randomized controlled trial

There have been recent surges in the use of smokeless tobacco (SLT) and betel quid (BQ) chew among adolescents in South East Asian countries, with an increase, on average, of 7% to 15% between 2004 and 2013, necessitating interventional investigations to modify this behavior. The current intervention was aimed towards changing adolescents’ perceptions regarding the harmful effects of SLT and BQ use and encouraging them to quit. This randomized control trial involved 2140 adolescents from 26 private and public-sector schools in Karachi, Pakistan. After randomization, 1185 individuals were placed in the intervention group and administered a behavior changing intervention (BCI), while 955 individuals constituted the control group. A generalized estimating equation was employed to measure differences in repeated measures for both groups. The beta coefficients were reported after adjusting the covariates with the 95% confidence interval, and the p-value was considered significant at Trial registration: ClinicalTrials.gov NCT03488095.近期东南亚国家青少年无烟烟草（smokeless tobacco, SLT）与槟榔嚼块（betel quid, BQ）的使用量显著攀升，2004至2013年间平均增幅达7%至15%，亟需开展干预研究以矫正此类行为。 本项干预旨在扭转青少年对无烟烟草及槟榔嚼块使用危害的认知偏差，并鼓励其戒除该不良习惯。本次随机对照试验纳入了巴基斯坦卡拉奇市26所公立及私立学校的2140名青少年。经随机分组后，1185名受试者被分配至干预组，接受行为改变干预（Behavior Changing Intervention, BCI）；剩余955名受试者则作为对照组。 研究采用广义估计方程对两组的重复测量数据差异进行分析。本研究报告了校正协变量后的β系数及其95%置信区间，以p值＜0.05作为统计学显著性判定标准；本试验已在ClinicalTrials.gov注册，注册号为NCT03488095。