Online social platform engagement by young treatment seekers in a digital vaping cessation intervention: Effects on confidence in the ability to quit vaping and vaping abstinence.

Background: The evidence-based vaping cessation program, This is Quitting (TIQ), has been found to be effective in promoting abstinence among young people who use e-cigarettes.

Purpose: To estimate acceptability and engagement with Discord among treatment seeking youth and young adults and assess the benefit of adding an online social platform via Discord to TIQ.

Methods: Between February and March 2023, 527 TIQ participants (aged 13-24 years) were invited to join Discord with other TIQ users (TIQ Discord). Participants completed two online surveys, at baseline and 1-month post study enrollment. Descriptive statistics were used to describe acceptability and engagement with TIQ Discord. Chi-square, Fisher's exact, and -tests were used to compare changes in confidence in ability to quit and vaping abstinence across those who joined and engaged with TIQ Discord, compared to those receiving TIQ only.

Results: Among the  = 319 who were invited to TIQ Discord and provided follow-up data, 57.4 % joined. Among those who joined ( = 183), 61.7 % engaged with TIQ Discord by contributing at least one message or reaction. The mean number of contributed messages was 4.0 (median = 1, range = 1 to 51) and reactions was 0.31 (median = 0, range = 0 to 14). Engaging with TIQ Discord was positively associated with increased confidence in quitting at follow-up (-value = 0.02), but vaping abstinence at follow-up did not differ (p-value = 0.87).

Discussion: Over half of participants who were invited to TIQ Discord joined - indicating high acceptability and an uptake rate that is higher than what is typically observed for online cessation communities. Engagement was positively associated with proximal outcomes, but self-selection prevents causal attribution. Pilot study results suggest acceptability of Discord for providing digital cessation support to young people in combination with a text-message cessation intervention.