FAYETTEVILLE — A pair of University of Arkansas researchers will partner with Arisa Health to educate more Central Arkansas youth about the perils of vaping.
Sociologist Shaun Thomas and Johanna Thomas, a professor and director of the School of Social Work, will offer the CATCH My Breath program to approximately 200 pre-teens and teenagers in nine Central Arkansas counties (Johnson, Pope, Conway, Faulkner, Perry, Yell, Pulaski, Lonoke, and Cleburne), starting this fall, according to the university. The two-year project is being funded with a $405,702 grant from the office of Arkansas Attorney General Tim Griffin.
“As the father of teenagers, I feel a personal connection to the various pressures our young people face in today’s digital world,” Griffin said in a news release Friday from the university. “Understanding how kids are being steered toward unhealthy habits and how we can use similar tactics to drive healthy choices is important to all Arkansans.”
This additional outreach is actually “an expansion of the evidence-based vaping cessation program we have been delivering since 2021 as part of our ongoing partnership with Arisa, (and) support for this expansion is a testament to the great work that has been happening in Faulkner County,” Shaun Thomas said Friday. “We are committed to continuing this important work and seeking funding to roll the programming out to more youth in the future.”
The original program “has been well received in our current population,” Thomas and Thomas noted in their grant proposal for expanding. “We expect the same positive reception in schools and other programs.”
Nearly half — 44% — of Arkansas high school seniors said they have tried vaping, according to the Arkansas Center for Health Improvement.
“The numbers in Arkansas mirror what we’re seeing nationally, (where) it’s reaching epidemic levels,” Shaun Thomas — a professor in the Department of Sociology and Criminology and director of the Center for Social Research — noted in the news release. “It’s not always just about changing behaviors after they have already started, (but, rather, it’s even better) if we can get to them before they pick up vaping for the first time.”
While cigarette use has been declining for years, vaping carries its own health risks, as the “juice” used in vape pens is unregulated and often contains harmful chemicals, according to UA-Fayetteville.
And advertising for e-cigarettes has been heavily aimed at adolescents, according to a recent article in Missouri Medicine, The Journal of the Missouri State Medical Association. “Vaping in adolescents poses a grave risk to patients’ health and is a topic that physicians have to confront.”
CATCH My Breath is a youth vaping prevention program developed by the University of Texas Health Science Center at Houston to attenuate youth vaping rates through increased knowledge about e-cigarettes and nicotine, as well as promoting positive perceptions of a vape-free lifestyle. It’s a free, evidence-based program designed for students in grades 5-12 and recognized by the SAMHSA (Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration).
“We’re seeing kids who are developing lung disease and respiratory disease” due to vaping, Johanna Thomas noted in the release. “Kids are dying.”
The program will be delivered using Qualified Behavioral Health Providers at Arisa Health in the nine counties to deliver the four-session courses to students in grades 5-12, Thomas and Thomas explained in their grant proposal. “We would recruit participants by offering this to our clients in the schools, both those who identify as vapers and non-vapers, as well as in our after-school groups and in the curriculum of our existing summer program.”
