Evidence map›Paper›PMID 41923761›Full record

ArticleFrontiers in public health2026

Mediation analysis investigating the mechanisms of two school-based smoking prevention interventions in adolescents from Northern Ireland and Bogotá.

Jennifer M Murray, Sharon C Sánchez-Franco, Olga L Sarmiento, Erik O Kimbrough, Christopher Tate, Shannon C Montgomery, Rajnish Kumar, Laura Dunne, Allen Thurston, Aideen Gildea and 9 more

Abstract read
In one paragraph

Article in Frontiers in public health, 2026. The graph could read no effect estimate from its abstract, so it casts no vote on the map. Cited by 1 paper.

0numbers the graph read from it
0cells of the map it votes in
1citing papers in PubMed
–field-weighted citation impact
1 · What the graph read from it

What it found

Each row is one number read from the abstract, on the scale the paper reported it, with its interval. Left of the dashed line favours the treatment, right favours the comparator. Under each row is the sentence it came from. New to these charts? A ten-minute tutorial.

The abstract states no effect estimate the extractor could read, or names no intervention and outcome on the map, so this paper lights no cell and moves no belief. It is still indexed, cited and linked below.

2 · The registry

The trial behind it

Trials whose registry record cites this paper, or whose number appears in the abstract. A trial that started after this paper was published is citing it as background, not reporting it.

Neither the registry nor the abstract names a trial number. If this is a trial report, that itself is worth knowing.

3 · Its place in the literature

Who cites it

1 citing paper in PubMed.

  1. Article
4 · The record

Corrections and comments

PubMed lists nothing against this paper. Absence here is not a guarantee, only a check that was made.

5 · Who and what money

Authors and funding

19 authors.

Jennifer M MurrayCentre for Public Health, School of Medicine, Dentistry and Biomedical Sciences, Queen's University Belfast, Belfast, United Kingdom.
Sharon C Sánchez-FrancoSchool of Medicine, Universidad de los Andes, Bogotá, Colombia.
Olga L SarmientoSchool of Medicine, Universidad de los Andes, Bogotá, Colombia.
Erik O KimbroughSmith Institute for Political Economy and Philosophy, Chapman University, Orange, CA, United States.
Christopher TateCentre for Public Health, School of Medicine, Dentistry and Biomedical Sciences, Queen's University Belfast, Belfast, United Kingdom.
Shannon C MontgomeryCentre for Public Health, School of Medicine, Dentistry and Biomedical Sciences, Queen's University Belfast, Belfast, United Kingdom.
Rajnish KumarQueen's Business School, Queen's University Belfast, Belfast, United Kingdom.
Laura DunneCentre for Evidence and Social Innovation, School of Social Sciences, Education and Social Work, Queen's University Belfast, Belfast, United Kingdom.
Allen ThurstonCentre for Effective Education, School of Social Sciences, Education and Social Work, Queen's University Belfast, Belfast, United Kingdom.
Aideen GildeaSchool of Nursing and Midwifery, School of Medicine, Dentistry and Biomedical Sciences, Queen's University Belfast, Belfast, United Kingdom.
Abhijit RamalingamDepartment of Economics, Appalachian State University, Boone, NC, United States.
Erin L KrupkaSchool of Information, University of Michigan, Ann Arbor, MI, United States.
Felipe MontesDepartment of Industrial Engineering, Universidad de los Andes, Bogotá, Colombia.
Huiyu ZhouSchool of Informatics, University of Leicester, Leicester, United Kingdom.
Laurence MooreMRC/CSO Social and Public Health Sciences Unit, University of Glasgow, Glasgow, United Kingdom.
Linda BauldUsher Institute, College of Medicine and Veterinary Medicine, University of Edinburgh, Edinburgh, United Kingdom.
Blanca LlorenteFundación Anáas, Bogotá, Colombia.
Frank Kee *Centre for Public Health, School of Medicine, Dentistry and Biomedical Sciences, Queen's University Belfast, Belfast, United Kingdom.
Ruth F Hunter *Centre for Public Health, School of Medicine, Dentistry and Biomedical Sciences, Queen's University Belfast, Belfast, United Kingdom.

Funding

No grant is acknowledged in the PubMed record.

6 · The paper itself

Abstract

Background: Reviews have highlighted a lack of evidence on how successful intervention strategies for adolescent smoking prevention can be effectively adapted for low-middle income countries (LMICs). The MECHANISMS study compared behavioral mechanisms between two school-based smoking prevention programs for adolescents in Northern Ireland (NI; a high-income setting) and Bogotá, Colombia (middle-income). ASSIST works via peer education and diffusion. Dead Cool uses conventional classroom pedagogy. Both interventions were previously trialed in the UK and were culturally adapted for Bogotá. We investigated whether changes in smoking/vaping outcomes differed by intervention or setting. Mediation analyses were conducted to test the hypothesized intervention mechanisms. Methods: Full school year groups in 12 secondary schools participated during one semester ( Results: Most significant intervention effects showed more anti-smoking outcomes for Dead Cool compared to ASSIST, although exposure to advertising was lower for ASSIST (media: unstandardized coefficient ( Conclusion: Our results suggest school-based programs may be an appealing target for adolescent smoking prevention in LMICs and support using social norms strategies. Future research should identify additional mediating constructs for adolescent smoking prevention in LMICs (integrating intrapersonal, social, environmental, cultural, and political factors), investigate how to optimize the communication channels in peer education and diffusion programs, and provide empirically testable mechanisms.

Indexed as

Adolescent BehaviorSchool Health ServicesSmoking PreventionAdolescentChildFemaleHealth Knowledge, Attitudes, PracticeHumansMaleMediation AnalysisNorthern Irelandadolescentsinterventionlow-middle income countriesmediation analysisnormspreventionsmokingvaping

Identifiers

PMID41923761
PMCPMC13036153

What Socratic holds

Textmetadata
LicenceCC BY
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Registered trials

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Read under generation 80e0d062 · epoch 390. Bibliography from PubMed, PubMed Central and OpenAlex; grants from NIH RePORTER; trial links from ClinicalTrials.gov; estimates, votes and beliefs from the Socratic graph.