[The design process and protocol for a cognitive-behavioral intervention to reduce electronic cigarette use among university students]

Electronic cigarette use has become an emerging Public Health concern among university students due to its increasing prevalence and the risks associated with nicotine exposure. Cognitive-behavioral interventions have shown promise in addressing this behavior; however, evidence on structured interventions adapted to the Mexican context remains limited. The aim of this study was to design an intervention to reduce electronic cigarette use among university students and establish the protocol for its implementation.

The intervention was developed through the stages of discovery, design, and refinement. Its components were based on the Theory of Planned Behavior, while its activities were informed by the taxonomy of behaviour change methods. Subsequently, a pilot experimental longitudinal study with pretest, posttest, and three-month follow-up assessments will be conducted. A total of sixty university students aged eighteen/twenty-four years from a Mexican public university will be recruited through convenience sampling and randomly assigned to the study groups. The intervention will consist of six fifty-minute face-to-face sessions incorporating educational components, cognitive restructuring, and social and personal skills training. Statistical analyses will be exploratory and will include between-group comparisons, repeated-measures analyses, and estimation of effect sizes.

The protocol will provide preliminary evidence on the feasibility and initial evaluation of an intervention aimed at reducing electronic cigarette use, generating information to inform the design of future studies and prevention strategies for the Mexican university student population.