Using Game Theory to assess the effects of social norms and social networks on adolescent smoking in schools: a proof of concept study

Lead Research Organisation: Queen's University Belfast
Department Name: Centre for Public Health

Abstract

In order to develop better public health interventions, it is important to understand the mechanisms by which they exert their effects. Interventions that act on groups of people or whole populations may be more effective at reducing health inequalities than those that target individuals. Changing social norms is one way of affecting behaviour in groups of people, but these social norms often depend on connections and shared "understandings" between members of the population. The connections between people are what characterise their shared "social network", and this may affect the way that social norms spread among people. Public health scientists know surprisingly little about how best to measure and evaluate the spread of social norms and their effects on behaviour.

This proof of concept proposal is innovative because we will harness the perspectives from scientists from different disciplines, for example, from economics and computer science, to compare and contrast two school-based interventions that aim to prevent smoking uptake among adolescents (13/14 year olds) in the UK and in Colombia - a LMIC and high income setting where smoking rates and norms are different - in order to reveal potential differences in the social norms-based mechanisms of action.

Overall Aims:
1. To improve the measurement of social norms around smoking behaviours in adolescents.
2. To use these improved measures to better understand the spread of social norms in school settings.
3. To better characterise the potential mechanisms of action of smoking prevention interventions in schools.
4. To learn lessons for the design and evaluation of behaviour change interventions that invoke mechanisms which change social norms.
5. To build a legacy of transdisciplinary research capacity in public health science in a LMIC setting, with clear pathways to impact.

Of the two evidence-based interventions, one is designed to harness the influence that peers have on their friends while the other is based on classroom teaching. In a before and after design, we will obtain baseline information on psychosocial characteristics, friendship groups and behaviours (e.g including attitudes and intentions towards smoking and vaping) from 300 students from three schools for each intervention (i.e. six schools in total, n=600) in the UK and the same number from six schools (three receiving one intervention each) in Bogota, Colombia. We are studying schools in two countries because the social norms around smoking are so different and the contrast between the two will provide richer explanations.

Before the intervention each participant will take part in economic experiments that will allow us to assess their judgments about the social appropriateness of a range of smoking and vaping-related behaviours, also enabling the estimation of individual sensitivity to social norms. At the end of the semester (after the interventions), participants will again take part in the same behavioural economic experiments, allowing us to estimate how the social norms (related to smoking and vaping) have changed, how individual sensitivity to classroom social norms has changed and how closely individual changes are related to changes among friends in the student's social network.

We will then analyse how measuring social norms in these novel ways has helped us learn more about the mechanisms of action of the interventions, and how the social norms spread in classrooms and year groups. We will use the quantitative data from the experiments and qualitative data from interviews with participants in these schools to "triangulate" our findings and sharpen the explanations that are possible from the overall analysis. At the end of the study we will meet with experts from different fields of research, to help us interpret our findings in a deeper way and discover how they might apply to other contexts and to other interventions to change health behaviours.

Technical Summary

This proof of concept study will harness novel transdisciplinary insights to contrast two school-based smoking prevention interventions among adolescents in the UK and Colombia, where smoking rates and norms are different, in order to better understand social norms-based mechanisms of action. We aim: to improve the measurement of social norms of smoking behaviours in adolescents and how they spread in schools; to better characterise the mechanisms of action of smoking prevention interventions in schools, learning lessons for future intervention research. One intervention is designed to harness peer influence, the other is based on classroom pedagogy. In a before and after design, we will obtain psychosocial, friendship and behavioural data (e.g. attitudes and intentions towards smoking and vaping) from 300 students from 3 schools for each intervention in the UK and the same number in Colombia. Pre-intervention, participants will take part in a Rule Following Game, and in Coordination and Double Dictator Games that allow us to assess their judgments about the social appropriateness of a range of smoking-related behaviours, and the estimation of individual sensitivity to social norms. After the interventions, these behavioural economic experiments will be repeated, so we can estimate how social norms (related to smoking) have changed, how sensitivity to classroom and year group norms have changed and how individual changes are related to changes among friends. We will use Game Theory approaches to extract norms and norms sensitivity parameters from the experiments, examining the influence of individual student attributes and their social networks within a Markov Chain Monte Carlo framework. Putative mechanisms will be inferred by triangulating our experiments with qualitative data from participants, by having data that contrasts the effects of two interventions with putatively different mechanisms, and by the contrast between two countries where norms are different.

Planned Impact

Our partners have identified a range of beneficial impacts, both through our regular meetings in developing the proposal and in their letters of support. We have designed our communication strategy (see Communication Plan) to maximise these benefits both for our partners and for our wider stakeholder community. Benefits range from improved understanding of underlying mechanisms of population level behaviour change interventions, through improving the approaches to their evaluation and informing future policy agendas. This range of benefits is briefly discussed below.

Promoting transdisciplinarity and ensuring stakeholder engagement will help us to deliver high impact research, with multiple beneficiaries in the UK, Colombia and beyond, including: young people; the general public; public health practitioners; policymakers across the UK and Latin America; participants of our studies and their families. Academic beneficiaries are detailed elsewhere (see Academic Beneficiaries). Considerable time and resources have been included in the grant to ensure that young people are involved throughout the study in order to maximise benefits to this population. Long term, we envisage such benefits to include the development and maintenance of 'healthy' social norms, leading to better quality of life and life expectancy through reduced smoking rates. Our Youth Advisory Panels will ensure that study findings are disseminated in a meaningful and appropriate manner.

The general public will benefit through increased knowledge of ongoing research. We aim to increase public engagement through events undertaken by our partners, Cancer Focus NI, the Public Health Agency, DECIPHer IMPACT and Foundacion Anaas. This type of engagement can occur throughout the research cycle, however, the public will also benefit, albeit at a later stage, from any research that is successfully translated into policy. Public health practitioners will benefit from knowledge gained through the workshop hosted in partnership with the Public Health Agency and Cancer Focus NI, and delivered as part of the implementation of the Public Health Agency's Knowledge Management Strategy and the work of the NI Public Health Research Forum (of which Kee was the inaugural Director). Parallel workshops will be planned for practitioners in the rest of the UK through our collaboration with the UKCRC Centre for Tobacco and Alcohol Research (www.ukctas.ac.uk/), Public Health England and the NIHR's Public Health Policy Advisory Board. These workshops will particularly focus on how best we can incorporate and elicit mechanisms of social norms in smoking prevention and other behaviour change programmes.

Policymakers and funders of research will find the research of value in assessing the public health priorities and novel approaches to smoking prevention. Although this is a proof of concept study, we have engaged with tobacco control experts from the outset, to ensure that this work will have long term policy relevance and impact. While the timelines for research and policy may not always be aligned, we will maintain our strong relationships with key decision makers to ensure that they have access to updates on new research and emerging results.

All beneficiaries will come together in a plenary workshop of thought leaders (from public health, network science and behavioural economics) using a Group Model Building (GMB), participatory approach that is widely used to build the capacity of practitioners to uncover hidden assumptions, build consensus and think more clearly about how changes might be effected within complex systems.

Publications

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Sánchez-Franco S (2021) Cultural adaptation of two school-based smoking prevention programs in Bogotá, Colombia. in Translational behavioral medicine

 
Description Policy note: MECHANISMS: Towards A Tobacco-Free Generation (Des-Ahógate: Hacia Una Generación Libre De Tabaco).
Geographic Reach South America 
Policy Influence Type Implementation circular/rapid advice/letter to e.g. Ministry of Health
URL https://epiandes.uniandes.edu.co/wp-content/uploads/DES-AH%C3%93GATE-Web-ENGLISH.pdf
 
Description CI-0120 Vice Presidency for Research & Creation publication fund at the Universidad de los Andes - CPE-021-20
Amount £2,200 (GBP)
Funding ID CPE-021-20 
Organisation University of the Andes 
Sector Academic/University
Country Colombia
Start 07/2020 
End 08/2021
 
Description DfE PhD Studentships - Chris Tate
Amount £60,000 (GBP)
Organisation Department for the Economy, Northern Ireland 
Sector Public
Country United Kingdom
Start 09/2018 
End 09/2021
 
Title MECHANISMS study dataset 
Description The MECHANISMS study dataset includes data collected from study participants (11-15 year old school pupils, n=1824) in 15 schools in Northern Ireland (N=7) and Bogotá (N=8). The information was collected via the platform Qualtrics (Qualtrics, Provo, Utah, USA) using iPads. The data collection sessions were completed by participating pupils in their school classes during two sessions. In the first session they completed online behavioral economics experiments designed to elicit social norms for adolescent smoking and vaping behaviors. In the second session they completed online self-report surveys assessing their socio-demographic characteristics, smoking outcomes, social networks, and personality characteristics. Participants also had their smoking behavior in the last 24 hours measured using a hand-held carbon monoxide monitor (PICOAdvantage Smokerlyzer, Bedfont). This is an electrochemical sensor which measures expelled air carbon monoxide in parts per million (ppm) in a range of 0-150 ppm with an accuracy of 2 ppm/5% (whichever is greater). These data collection session took place at baseline (before the implementation of the smoking prevention programs in each school), and were repeated at follow-up (after the smoking prevention programs had ended in each school, approximately 10-12 weeks later). The final MECHANISMS dataset consists of 1824 observations of 986 variables. Variables include participants' unique study IDs, study information (participation status, intervention assignment, school, class), and socio-demographic characteristics (country, sex, age, socio-economic status, ethnicity, family) [baseline]; self-reported smoking behavior, intentions, knowledge, attitudes, and psychosocial constructs (self-efficacy, perceived risks and benefits, perceived behavioral control, exposure to smoking advertisements) [baseline and follow-up]; objectively measured smoking behavior from the Smokerlyzer readings [baseline and follow-up]; personality characteristics (Big5 subscales, need to belong, pro-sociality, fear of negative evaluation) [baseline]; wellbeing, school information on smoking, pocket money, and truancy [baseline and follow-up]; and experimental responses (rule-following, injunctive norms unrelated to smoking, injunctive norms related to smoking, descriptive norms related to smoking, willingness to pay to support anti-smoking norms) [baseline and follow-up]. A separate dataset was also created recording the social networks data collected at baseline and follow-up. This consists of 44428 observations (N=13 schools) of 14 variables, including participants' unique study IDs, nominated friend's unique study ID, relationship (e.g. closest friends, friends who you would talk to if you were upset), rank (1-10), whether they were indicated as a best friend, timepoint (baseline or follow-up), country, school, class, friend country, friend school, and friend class. Qualitative data was also collected. In Northern Ireland, the qualitative assessment consisted of 15 focus groups with approximately 8 pupils per focus group. These were conducted in six NI schools after the smoking prevention programs had ended. The topic guide included themes such as: awareness and thoughts about the smoking prevention program; pupils' attitudes towards smoking behavior; social norms for smoking and past/current smoking behavior / e-cigarette behavior of family and friends; social networks and smoking behavior; social support for smoking from family and friends; influences on smoking behavior. Each focus group was audio-recorded, transcribed, and anonymized. A similar qualitative assessment was conducted after the smoking prevention programs were implemented in the Colombian schools (N=6 full phase schools). In Colombia, qualitative data was also collected during the pilot phase of the study to inform the cultural adaptation process (N=2 pilot phase schools). 
Type Of Material Data handling & control 
Year Produced 2020 
Provided To Others? No  
Impact Currently two papers have been published (DOI 10.3389/fpubh.2020.00377; DOI 10.1038/s41598-020-72784-z), and one paper has been accepted (Sánchez-Franco et al., 2021, Translational Behavioral Medicine) reporting results generated from the data. Several other publications are also currently in progress by the various members of the team. Many of the study's engagement activities (e.g. research visits, conference presentations, research seminars, invited talks) have focused on sharing results generated from the data. We also have several engagement activities planned over the coming months, which will report results generated from the dataset. For example, we are holding a virtual scientific and policy workshop on 24-25th March 2021 to disseminate our study results, which will be attended by the research teams in both countries, study co-Investigators, study participants, public health practitioners, researchers, and policy makers. Conference abstracts have also been accepted for an oral presentation at the 16th International Congress of Behavioural Medicine (ICBM) to be held 7-11 June 2021, and a flash talk paper at the Society for Research in Child Development (SRCD) Virtual Biennial Meeting to be held 7-9 April 2021. 
 
Description Collaboration agreement between Secretaría de Salud del Distrito and Universidad de los Andes 
Organisation Government of Colombia
Department District Secretary of Health
Country Colombia 
Sector Public 
PI Contribution The Health and Education Departments of Bogotá and the University of the Andes collaborated to recruit Bogotá schools for the MECHANISMS study, according to their risk factors for pupils' smoking and increase the engagement of the school in the research. It was a formal agreement between the District Health Secretary and the University of the Andes.
Collaborator Contribution The Health and Education Departments of Bogotá and the University of the Andes collaborated to recruit Bogotá schools for the MECHANISMS study, according to their risk factors for pupils' smoking and increase the engagement of the school in the research. It was a formal agreement between the District Health Secretary and the University of the Andes.
Impact Outputs: Data collection, Cultural adaptation process. Disciplines (University of the Andes): Public health (research/academia). Disciplines (District Health Secretary): Health and Education departments (government).
Start Year 2019
 
Description A talk or presentation - Oral presentation on the MECHANISMS study Comparative Methods paper at the Interdisciplinary Behavioural Medicine: Systems, Networks & Interventions 16th International Congress of Behavioural Medicine (ICBM2021), online, June 2021 
Form Of Engagement Activity A talk or presentation
Part Of Official Scheme? No
Geographic Reach International
Primary Audience Professional Practitioners
Results and Impact JM (Research Fellow, Queen's University Belfast) submitted an abstract, which was accepted, for an oral presentation at the Interdisciplinary Behavioural Medicine: Systems, Networks & Interventions 16th International Congress of Behavioural Medicine (ICBM2021). The conference was held online. The title of the talk was "Comparing social norms around smoking in adolescents using Game Theory based experiments and self-reports: Insights from the MECHANISMS Study". The aim of the talk was to provide an overview of the results of the MECHANISMS study comparative methods paper. The conference was mainly attended by researchers, academics, clinicians, and other professionals. Questions were asked afterwards requesting more information about the self-report and behavioural economics experimental methods of eliciting social norms, and about pupils' engagement with the experiments. A conference attendee contacted JM afterwards to ask whether the paper had been published.
Year(s) Of Engagement Activity 2021
URL https://happening.eventsair.com/icbm2021/
 
Description A talk or presentation - Oral presentation on the MECHANISMS study Peer Influence paper at the Interdisciplinary Behavioural Medicine: Systems, Networks & Interventions 16th International Congress of Behavioural Medicine (ICBM2021), online, June 2021 
Form Of Engagement Activity A talk or presentation
Part Of Official Scheme? No
Geographic Reach International
Primary Audience Professional Practitioners
Results and Impact JM (Research Fellow, Queen's University Belfast) submitted an abstract, which was accepted, for an oral presentation at the Interdisciplinary Behavioural Medicine: Systems, Networks & Interventions 16th International Congress of Behavioural Medicine (ICBM2021). The conference was held online. The title of the talk was "Homophily and peer influence effects for spreading adolescent smoking and vaping norms, and other smoking outcomes, in schools: The MECHANISMS study". The aim of the talk was to provide an overview of the results of the MECHANISMS study homophily and peer influence paper. The conference was mainly attended by researchers, academics, clinicians, and other professionals. Questions were asked afterwards requesting more information about the cultural adaptation and the intervention programs.
Year(s) Of Engagement Activity 2021
URL https://happening.eventsair.com/icbm2021/
 
Description A talk or presentation - Oral presentation on the MECHANISMS study Qualitative paper at the Interdisciplinary Behavioural Medicine: Systems, Networks & Interventions 16th International Congress of Behavioural Medicine (ICBM2021), online, June 2021 
Form Of Engagement Activity A talk or presentation
Part Of Official Scheme? No
Geographic Reach International
Primary Audience Professional Practitioners
Results and Impact SSF (Research Fellow, Universidad de los Andes) submitted an abstract, which was accepted, for an oral presentation at the Interdisciplinary Behavioural Medicine: Systems, Networks & Interventions 16th International Congress of Behavioural Medicine (ICBM2021). The conference was held online. The title of the talk was "What are the mechanisms by which adolescents chose to smoke or vape? A qualitative study in Bogotá and Northern Ireland". The aim of the talk was to provide an overview of the results of the MECHANISMS study qualitative paper. The conference was mainly attended by researchers, academics, clinicians, and other professionals. Questions were asked afterwards requesting more information about differences between the two contexts.
Year(s) Of Engagement Activity 2021
URL https://happening.eventsair.com/icbm2021/
 
Description Engagement with policy makers regarding tobacco control in Colombia 
Form Of Engagement Activity A formal working group, expert panel or dialogue
Part Of Official Scheme? No
Geographic Reach International
Primary Audience Policymakers/politicians
Results and Impact Dialogue with policy makers regarding the translatability of culturally adapted schools based smoking prevention interventions
Year(s) Of Engagement Activity 2019
 
Description Invited speaker NIH Obesity Prevention in Latin America, 12-15th Nov 2019 
Form Of Engagement Activity A talk or presentation
Part Of Official Scheme? No
Geographic Reach International
Primary Audience Other audiences
Results and Impact Ruth Hunter was an invited speaker at the NIH workshop on Obesity Prevention in Latin America, 12-15th Nov 2019. Her talk included an overview of intervention strategies using social networks and systems thinking.
Year(s) Of Engagement Activity 2019
 
Description Journal note in the University of the Andes media, Bogotá, Colombia: Hacía una Genetación Libre de Humo de Tabaco (Towards a Tobacco Smoke Free Generation) 
Form Of Engagement Activity A press release, press conference or response to a media enquiry/interview
Part Of Official Scheme? No
Geographic Reach National
Primary Audience Media (as a channel to the public)
Results and Impact Journal note in the Universidad de los Andes media to disseminate the research and its impact for smoking prevention among adolescents.

Date: 29th May 2020.
Year(s) Of Engagement Activity 2020
URL https://uniandes.edu.co/es/noticias/salud-y-medicina/hacia-una-generacion-libre-de-tabaco
 
Description Keynote on the MECHANISMS study norms stability paper at the International Online Conference RExCon21 on 'Social Preferences and Social Norms' (July 2021). 
Form Of Engagement Activity A talk or presentation
Part Of Official Scheme? No
Geographic Reach International
Primary Audience Other audiences
Results and Impact One of the MECHANISMS study's co-investigators (ELK) gave a keynote speech at an online conference hosted by the Higher School of Economics, Moscow, Russian Federation. The title of the conference was the "International Online Conference RExCon21 on 'Social Preferences and Social Norms'", and title of the talk was "On the Stability of Norms and Interventions to Change Norms". The talk focused on the results of the MECHANISMS study norms stability paper. Approximately 25 people attended. The audience mainly consisted of scholars from economics and its sister disciplines.
Year(s) Of Engagement Activity 2021
URL https://rexcon.hse.ru/2021/
 
Description LANET Keynote speaker, Aug 2019 
Form Of Engagement Activity A talk or presentation
Part Of Official Scheme? No
Geographic Reach International
Primary Audience Professional Practitioners
Results and Impact Ruth Hunter was an invited keynote speaker at the Latin American Conference on Complex Networks (LANet), Cartagena, Colombia, 8th August 2019, entitled "Social network interventions for health behaviour change". This raised awareness about social network interventions research and the MECHANISMS project to an international audience.
Year(s) Of Engagement Activity 2019
URL https://lanet2019.uniandes.edu.co/
 
Description MECHANISMS study plenary scientific and policy workshop in March 2021 (online) 
Form Of Engagement Activity Participation in an activity, workshop or similar
Part Of Official Scheme? No
Geographic Reach International
Primary Audience Policymakers/politicians
Results and Impact The plenary event was an online workshop, taking place over two half-days (Event title: "Smoking, friendship networks and norms"). The purpose of the event was to disseminate the findings of the three-year MECHANISMS study. Government officials in both countries (Department of Health in Northern Ireland, Congress of Colombia, Health Ministry of Colombia, the Public Health Agency NI) gave talks, and took part in discussion panels. Topics discussed included implementing smoking prevention policies, and adapting school-based prevention programs to local contexts. Participating pupils took part in a discussion panel where they discussed their views on smoking and experiences of taking part in the ASSIST and Dead Cool programs. The study's researchers also gave talks disseminating the various findings.
Year(s) Of Engagement Activity 2021
URL https://www.smokingmechanisms.com/
 
Description MECHANISMS study research visit to the Queen's University Belfast campus in Belfast, Northern Ireland, September 2018 
Form Of Engagement Activity Participation in an open day or visit at my research institution
Part Of Official Scheme? No
Geographic Reach International
Primary Audience Schools
Results and Impact Members of the Colombian research team (SSF, Research Fellow at University of the Andes; LM, Here and Now Collective), and from the Public Health Agency NI (SO, Health and Social Wellbeing Improvement Senior Officer with the PHA; HG, Mental Health & Suicide Prevention Training Coordinator at PHA) visited the Queen's University Belfast campus in September 2018 to participate in a "Train the trainer" week during which the Colombian and Northern Irish teams undertook training in the two smoking prevention programs (Dead Cool and ASSIST) that would be delivered in schools as part of the MECHANISMS study. The training was lead by employees from Evidence to Impact (SG, co-Investigator), and Cancer Focus NI (co-Investigators JW and ED), and took place on the university campus, and in the Cancer Focus NI office headquarters. During the training week, the Colombian team visited a local school with JM (Research Fellow, Queen's University Belfast) and JW, to observe the introductory session of Dead Cool being delivered, and meet the pupils. The visit was useful because it provided the main training opportunity for the personnel who would be responsible for delivering the programs during the study's fieldwork in both countries.
Year(s) Of Engagement Activity 2018
 
Description MECHANISMS study research visit to the University of the Andes campus in Bogotá, Colombia, March 2019 
Form Of Engagement Activity Participation in an open day or visit at my research institution
Part Of Official Scheme? No
Geographic Reach International
Primary Audience Policymakers/politicians
Results and Impact FK (PI, Queen's University Belfast), EK (co-Investigator, Chapman University), JW (co-Investigator, Cancer Focus NI), SG (co-Investigator, Evidence to Impact), and JM (Research Fellow, Queen's University Belfast), participated in a research visit to the University of the Andes campus in Bogotá (Colombia) as part of the MECHANISMS study in March 2019. During the research visit, a presentation was made describing the results of the Northern Ireland (NI) pilot, and the "lessons learnt" before conducting the full phase of the research in six NI schools. At that point, the Colombian team were also about to start their pilot in two schools in Bogotá. The team also visited the two Bogotá pilot schools, were introduced to some of the Colombian children who were participants in the MECHANISMS study, and observed some sessions of the smoking prevention interventions (Dead Cool and ASSIST) being delivered. We also had a lunch-time meeting with local policy makers from the Ministry of Health in Colombia, during which SSF (Research Fellow, University of the Andes) gave a presentation on the prevalence of adolescent smoking in Bogotá (and Colombia as a whole), and on the MECHANISMS study.

It was helpful for members of the NI team, and the study's collaborators, to see the context in Bogotá. The two teams were also able to discuss certain logistical challenges around the implementation of the study, and the collection of study outcomes, before progressing to the full phase of the study in both countries. The intervention designers (from Cancer Focus NI and Evidence to Impact) were able to observe the programs being delivered in a new context, and to provide constructive feedback that was helpful for both teams before progressing to the full phase of the study in both locations.
Year(s) Of Engagement Activity 2019
 
Description MECHANISMS-visit to UniAndes, 12-14th Aug 2019 
Form Of Engagement Activity Participation in an open day or visit at my research institution
Part Of Official Scheme? No
Geographic Reach International
Primary Audience Policymakers/politicians
Results and Impact Ruth Hunter and Shannon Montgomery visited the study team at the UniAndes, 12-14th Aug 2019. This involved meetings with study participants and school visits, and discussions re: writing papers.
Year(s) Of Engagement Activity 2019
 
Description Meeting with policy makers in Colombian Ministry of Health 
Form Of Engagement Activity Participation in an activity, workshop or similar
Part Of Official Scheme? No
Geographic Reach International
Primary Audience Policymakers/politicians
Results and Impact Meeting with local policy makers from Ministry of Health in Colombia.
Year(s) Of Engagement Activity 2019
 
Description Obesity Review Supplement 2020 
Form Of Engagement Activity A formal working group, expert panel or dialogue
Part Of Official Scheme? No
Geographic Reach International
Primary Audience Other audiences
Results and Impact Ruth Hunter has been invited as a member of a writing group for a supplement to Obesity Reviews on Obesity Prevention in Latin America and Latino Populations to be published in Nov 2020. She is leading a paper on systems thinking for obesity prevention, and is a co-author on 2 other papers on the built environment and social environment.
Year(s) Of Engagement Activity 2020
 
Description Oral presentation on the MECHANISMS study at the Joint Public Health Annual Conference, Titanic Belfast, November 2019 
Form Of Engagement Activity A talk or presentation
Part Of Official Scheme? No
Geographic Reach National
Primary Audience Industry/Business
Results and Impact JM (Research Fellow, Queen's University Belfast) submitted an abstract, which was accepted, for an oral presentation at the Joint Public Health Annual Conference. The conference was held at Titanic Belfast, on 27th November 2019. It was hosted by The Centre for Public Health (Queen's University Belfast), The Public Health Agency, The Health Service Executive Ireland, The Institute of Public Health in Ireland, and The Department of Health NI. The title of the talk was "Using Game Theory to assess the effects of social norms and social networks on adolescent smoking in schools: The MECHANISMS Study". The aim of the talk was to provide an overview of the MECHANISMS study experiments (behavioral economics experiments designed to elicit social norms for adolescent smoking and vaping behaviors), and to provide an overview of some preliminary study results. It sparked questions and discussion afterwards on issues around measuring norms for smoking and vaping behaviors.
Year(s) Of Engagement Activity 2019
URL https://www.qub.ac.uk/research-centres/CentreforPublicHealth/FileStore/Filetoupload,944199,en.pdf
 
Description Oral presentation on the MECHANISMS study at the School of Medicine, Dentistry and Biomedical Sciences Annual PostDoc Symposium, Queen's University Belfast, March 2019. 
Form Of Engagement Activity A talk or presentation
Part Of Official Scheme? No
Geographic Reach Local
Primary Audience Other audiences
Results and Impact JM (Research Fellow, Queen's University Belfast) submitted an abstract, which was accepted, for an oral presentation at the annual School of Medicine, Dentistry and Biomedical Sciences (SMDBS) PostDoc symposium at Queen's University Belfast, in March 2019. The title of the talk was "Using Game Theory to assess the effects of social norms and social networks on adolescent smoking in schools: The MECHANISMS Study". The aim of the talk was to provide a broad overview of the MECHANISMS study in general, and to describe the MECHANISMS study behavioral economics experiments, which are designed to elicit social norms for adolescent smoking behaviors. The audience included around 60-70 people, who were mainly university employees from across the SMDBS (Post-Doctoral researchers, Postgraduate students, members of the university academic staff). The talk generated some discussion afterwards around the main challenges of implementing the study.
Year(s) Of Engagement Activity 2019
URL https://www.qub.ac.uk/about/Leadership-and-structure/Faculties-and-Schools/Medicine-Health-and-Life-...
 
Description Oral presentation to disseminate the pilot baseline results of the MECHANISMS study in Bogotá at a local event: VII Joint Meeting of Investigators of the Faculty of Medicine, University of the Andes and the Santa Fe de Bogotá Foundation (Researcher virtual meeting). 
Form Of Engagement Activity A talk or presentation
Part Of Official Scheme? No
Geographic Reach National
Primary Audience Postgraduate students
Results and Impact Oral presentation to disseminate the pilot baseline results of the MECHANISMS study in Bogotá at a local event: VII Joint Meeting of Investigators of the Faculty of Medicine, University of the Andes and the Santa Fe de Bogotá Foundation/VII Encuentro cojunto de invetigadores Facultad de Medicina, Universidad de los Andes y Fundación SantaFe de Bogotá (Researcher virtual meeting).

Title of talk: Adaptación cultural de dos intervenciones para prevenir el consumo de tabaco en adolescentes en Bogotá (short talk in video) - Cultural adaptation of two smoking prevention interventions among adolescents in Bogotá.
Date: 13- 23rd October 2020
Audience: 1038 researchers, post-graduate students, and local researchers
Authors: Sánchez-Franco, S., Arias, L.F., Jaramillo, J., Murray J.M., Hunter, R.F., Llorente, B. Bauld, L., Good, S. West, J. Kee, F. & Sarmiento, O.L.
Year(s) Of Engagement Activity 2020
URL https://encuentrofsfbmedicina.uniandes.edu.co/
 
Description Oral presentation to disseminate the pilot baseline results of the MECHANISMS study in Bogotá at a local event: VII Joint Meeting of Investigators of the Faculty of Medicine, University of the Andes and the Santa Fe de Bogotá Foundation (Researcher virtual meeting). 
Form Of Engagement Activity A talk or presentation
Part Of Official Scheme? No
Geographic Reach National
Primary Audience Postgraduate students
Results and Impact Oral presentation to disseminate the pilot baseline results of the MECHANISMS study in Bogotá at a local event: VII Joint Meeting of Investigators of the Faculty of Medicine, University of the Andes and the Santa Fe de Bogotá Foundation /VII Encuentro cojunto de invetigadores Facultad de Medicina, Universidad de los Andes y Fundación SantaFe de Bogotá (Researcher virtual meeting).

Title of talk: ¿Por qué los adolescentes fuman?: Razones para fumar y no fumar en adolescentes de Bogotá (short talk in video) - Why adolescent smoke? Reasons to smoke and not smoke among adolescents in Bogotá.

Date: 13- 23rd October 2020

Audience: 1038 researchers, post-graduate students, and local researchers

Authors: Sánchez-Franco, S., Arias, L.F., Jaramillo, J., Murray J.M., Hunter, R.F., Llorente, B. Bauld, L., Good, S. West, J. Kee, F. & Sarmiento, O.L.
Year(s) Of Engagement Activity 2020
URL https://encuentrofsfbmedicina.uniandes.edu.co/
 
Description Poster to disseminate the MECHANISMS study research at a local event in Bogotá, Colombia. The 17th Research Day of the Fundación Cardioinfantil (IC), Colombian Neumological Foundation 2019: Role of real life studies in the generation of knowledge. 
Form Of Engagement Activity Participation in an open day or visit at my research institution
Part Of Official Scheme? No
Geographic Reach National
Primary Audience Postgraduate students
Results and Impact Poster to disseminate the MECHANISMS study research at a local event in Bogotá, Colombia. The 17th Research Day of the Fundación Cardioinfantil (IC), Colombian Neumological Foundation 2019: Role of real life studies in the generation of knowledge.

Poster title: Mecanismos de Prevención: mediadores de la conducta y normas sociales del consumo de tabaco en adolescentes (Prevention mechanisims: mediators and social norms of smoking behaviour among adolescents).
Authors: Sánchez-Franco, S., Jaramillo, J., Montes, F., Hunter, R., Kee, F., & Sarmiento, O.

Date: November, 2019
Audience: Local researchers, post-graduate students, and stakeholders
Year(s) Of Engagement Activity 2019
URL https://cardioinfantil.org/noticias/17o-dia-de-la-investigacion-un-espacio-para-la-difusion-conocimi...
 
Description Poster to disseminate the pilot baseline results of the MECHANISMS study in Bogotá at a local event: VI Joint meeting of researchers Faculty of Medicine, University of the Andes and the Santa Fe de Bogotá Foundation (Researcher Meeting), September 2019. 
Form Of Engagement Activity Participation in an activity, workshop or similar
Part Of Official Scheme? No
Geographic Reach Regional
Primary Audience Postgraduate students
Results and Impact Poster to disseminate the pilot baseline results of the MECHANISMS study in Bogotá at a local event: VI Joint meeting of researchers Faculty of Medicine, University of the Andes and the Santa Fe de Bogotá Foundation/VI Encuentro cojunto de invetigadores Facultad de Medicina, Universidad de los Andes y Fundación SantaFe de Bogotá. (Researcher Meeting), September 2019.

Poster title: Caracterización de mediadores de comportamietno en el consumo de tabaco en adolescents en colegios de Bogotá (Poster) - Characterization of mediators of adolescent smoking behaviour among schools in Bogotá.
Date: 4th September 2019
Audience: post-graduate students, local researchers
Authors: Sánchez-Franco, S., Jaramillo, J. & Sarmiento, O.
Year(s) Of Engagement Activity 2019
URL https://medicina.uniandes.edu.co/es/investigacion/encuentro-conjunto-investigadores
 
Description Report to schools-University of the Andes, Bogotá, Colombia 
Form Of Engagement Activity A talk or presentation
Part Of Official Scheme? No
Geographic Reach Regional
Primary Audience Schools
Results and Impact Report to schools about the preliminary results of the research and implementation of the interventions in Bogotá. This opened the discussion of the research in the schools with teachers and principals. The reports were disseminated in the organizational meeting with caregivers and pupils (participants).

Date: December 2019 - February 2020.
Audience: Eight local schools, 21 teachers, and ~800 pupils and caregivers in Bogotá, Colombia.
Year(s) Of Engagement Activity 2019,2020
 
Description Research seminar on the MECHANISMS study at the Department of Psychology, Maynooth University, Ireland, March 2020 
Form Of Engagement Activity A talk or presentation
Part Of Official Scheme? No
Geographic Reach National
Primary Audience Undergraduate students
Results and Impact JM (Research Fellow, Queen's University Belfast) was invited to give a talk at a research seminar on the MECHANISMS study by an externally affiliated co-author on one of the study's papers (JMP, Department of Psychology, Maynooth University, Ireland). The aim of the talk was to provide an overview of the study's experiments (behavioral economics experiments aiming to elicit social norms for adolescent smoking and vaping behaviors), and to discuss the results of the study's Comparative Methods paper, which has now been published (DOI: 10.1038/s41598-020-72784-z). The audience was mainly undergraduate students, postgraduate students, and members of the research and teaching staff at the Department of Psychology, Maynooth University. The talk generated some discussion on the lessons that could be taken from the study for designing interventions aiming to delay smoking onset. The presentation slides were shared with the hosts, because the undergraduate students are asked to write summaries of the talks they attend during these research seminars.
Year(s) Of Engagement Activity 2020
 
Description World No-tobacco day videos, University of the Andes, Bogotá, Colombia 
Form Of Engagement Activity A broadcast e.g. TV/radio/film/podcast (other than news/press)
Part Of Official Scheme? No
Geographic Reach International
Primary Audience Media (as a channel to the public)
Results and Impact Videos were created to present the MECHANISMS study research during World No-tobacco day, including an abstract of the research and testimonies from researchers and students (participants) and teachers. The videos contributed to disseminate the research and support the policy initiative of WHO World No-tobacco day 2020. The videos were made and subtitled in Spanish and English.

Date: 31st May 2020.
Audience: 586 views in YouTube (general public).
Year(s) Of Engagement Activity 2020
URL https://epiandes.uniandes.edu.co/?page_id=1342