STUDY PROTOCOL article
Front. Public Health
Sec. Life-Course Epidemiology and Social Inequalities in Health
Volume 13 - 2025 | doi: 10.3389/fpubh.2025.1618341
This article is part of the Research TopicSubstance Use Research and Population HealthView all 5 articles
Youth Vaping Prevention with Urban Indigenous Communities of the Southwest U.S.: A Protocol for a Randomized Controlled Trial
Provisionally accepted
Stephanie L Ayers1*
Matt Ignacio1
Jolyana Begay-Kroupa2Sabrina Oesterle1
Scott K. Okamoto3Zoe Reep1Danielle June1Stephen S Kulis1- 1Arizona State University, Tempe, United States
- 2Phoenix Indian Center, Phoenix, United States
- 3University of Hawaii, Honolulu, Hawaii, United States
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Background: Indigenous adolescents have the highest rates of nicotine vaping and tend to initiate at an earlier age compared to other racial and ethnic groups. Despite this, no evidence-based intervention currently exists to prevent nicotine and cannabis vaping for Indigenous youth. Methods: This study will partner with a long-established community organization and an Indigenous Youth Advisory Board to better understand the key risk and protective factors associated with vaping among urban American Indian youth of the Southwest U.S. The study will also adapt and test through a randomized controlled trial Living in 2 Worlds, an empirically supported substance use prevention intervention, to specifically target nicotine and cannabis vaping in urban American Indian youth. The Indigenous Youth Advisory Board will be actively involved throughout the research process, helping to guide the study, ensure meaningful youth participation, and changes in their , and assess changes in confidence, leadership, and collaboration among participantswill be assessed. Discussion: This study builds on the strengths of the urban Indigenous community and long-standing partnerships to address a critical need: reducing vaping disparities among Indigenous youth and their associated health impacts. By developing an evidence-based, culturally relevant, and sustainable intervention, this research aims to create lasting change and help eliminate racial and ethnic disparities in substance use.
Keywords: Urban, American Indian, Native American, Indigenous, vaping, prevention, health equity
Received: 25 Apr 2025; Accepted: 12 Aug 2025.
Copyright: © 2025 Ayers, Ignacio, Begay-Kroupa, Oesterle, Okamoto, Reep, June and Kulis. This is an open-access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License (CC BY). The use, distribution or reproduction in other forums is permitted, provided the original author(s) or licensor are credited and that the original publication in this journal is cited, in accordance with accepted academic practice. No use, distribution or reproduction is permitted which does not comply with these terms.
* Correspondence: Stephanie L Ayers, Arizona State University, Tempe, United States
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