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Background: Despite recent tobacco control efforts, adolescent vaping remains an epidemic in the United States. The purpose of our study was to understand high school student vaping behaviors using the perceptions of Massachusetts school personnel during the critical window from when the Massachusetts statewide flavor ban legislation was passed in November 2019 through the first year of the COVID-19 pandemic. Methods: High school personnel throughout Massachusetts were invited to complete a cross-sectional survey. Analysis of survey responses was conducted in R. Results: A total of 162 respondents completed the survey representing 137 schools that draw enrollments from 216 (61%) of the 352 cities and towns in Massachusetts. The most popular products that respondents believed their students were using were JUULs (95.7%), other e-cigarettes (85.3%), and disposable vapes (79.6%). Following the flavor ban, the majority (90.7%) did not report an increase in combusted tobacco product use. All participants (100%) reported wanting more access to prevention and treatment resources. Conclusions: Our findings suggest that a comprehensive flavor ban may be an effective tobacco control policy that does not appear to promote student switching from vaping products to combusted tobacco products. These data also indicate that schools report needing additional resources to address the vaping epidemic.

Background. Sore throat in children is among the most common of medical problems to result in a primary care office visit. A rapid point-of-care antigen detection test for group A streptococcal pharyngitis is already in routine office use in clinical facilities but not generally available to the public. We tested the hypothesis that parents themselves would be able perform the rapid strep test for their children and thereby be able to avoid, when medically appropriate, the cost and inconvenience of an office visit. Methods. In a pediatric clinic serving a 25,000-member university community, parents of patients ages 5 to 16 with the presenting problem of sore throat or upper respiratory infection were invited to participate in our study. If a rapid strep test was indicated, participating parents performed the throat swabbing and strep test while being observed by a clinic staff member. Regular clinic protocol was then followed for subsequent bacterial culture and antibiotic treatment. Results. Among 120 parents invited to participate, 76 agreed and 71 successfully performed the throat swabbing and rapid strep test. Most of the participants were confident or at least somewhat confident in their swabbing and testing. Conclusions. If the parents of these children had been able to perform the rapid step test in their homes, visits to the clinic could have been avoided; no school or work time would have been lost; and physicians and clinic staff could have focused their efforts on more emergent needs, all without compromise to these patients. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]