CATCH My Breath

CATCH My Breath (CMB) is a middle school e-cigarette prevention program originally designed as a rapid response to the emerging teen vaping trends. Our team is conducting an evaluation study to empirically assess the three-year effects of the CMB program on reducing susceptibility and initiation of e-cigarette use in a 6th-grade cohort, using a 20-school group randomized controlled trial (RCT), with approximately 1,400 students.
CATCH My Breath was developed and custom built with input from school administrators, health education coordinators, tobacco prevention educators, classroom teachers, students, and parents. CMB has been formatively evaluated and pilot tested at 59 middle schools in 7 states, resulting in positive feedback from over 100 middle school teachers and almost 10,000 6th-8th grade students. Our second pilot test was a pretest-posttest controlled experiment (2017-2018) and resulted in a treatment-control difference of 3.8% in ever smoking over a 16-month period. The research team, along with the CATCH Global Foundation, have developed a digital school-health program distribution framework which includes in-person and online teacher training.
The CATCH My Breath trial is conducted by researchers at the Michael & Susan Dell Center for Healthy Living at The University of Texas Health Science Center at Houston (UTHealth) School of Public Health in Austin, with funding from the National Institute of Health (NIH).
Partners of the CMB include:
- CATCH Global Foundation
- National Institute of Health
- CVS Health
- Discovery Education
- The University of Texas Health Science Center at Houston (UTHealth) School of Public Health
People:
Steven Kelder, PhD, MPH
Principal Investigator
Dale Mantey, PhD, MPH
Postdoctoral Fellow
Tara Nouveau, MEd, MPH
Project Manager
Onyinye Omega-Njemnobi, PhD, MBBS, MPH
Postdoctoral Fellow
Andrew Springer, DrPH
Co-Investigator
Felisa Ruiz, MPH
Research Associate
Boajiang Chen, PhD
Co-Investigator
Kymberle Sterling, PhD
Co-Investigator
Duncan Van Dusen, MPH
Founder & CEO at CATCH Global Foundation

CATCH My Breath E-Cigarette Prevention Program and UTHealth Research Study
7/6/2020 - We invite your child to join the CATCH My Breath Youth Focus Group.
Dissemination of CATCH My Breath, a middle school E-Cigarette prevention program
(Kelder, S. H., Mantey, D. S., Van Dusen, D., Vaughn, T., Bianco, M., & Springer, A. E. (2021). Dissemination of CATCH My Breath, a middle school E-Cigarette prevention program. Addictive Behaviors, 113, 106698.)
A middle school program to prevent e-cigarette use: A pilot study of "CATCH My Breath"
Kelder, S. H., Mantey, D. S., Van Dusen, D., Case, K., Haas, A., & Springer, A. E. (2020). Public health reports (Washington, D.C. : 1974), 135(2), 220–229.
Baojiang Chen, PhD
Benjamin Cristol, MPH
Steven Kelder, PhD, MPH
Charlie Moses, MA
Onyinye Omega-Njemnobi, MBBS, MPH
Andrew Springer, DrPH
‘Catch My Breath’ campaign stops in Leander to warn of vaping dangers
With all the new cases of respiratory illnesses connected to vaping, parents want to know all there is to know about it. There was a special presentation as part of the national “Catch My Breath” campaign Tuesday night in Leander at the Running Brushy Middle School’s PTA meeting.CATCHING FIRE: UTHealth Program Reduces E-Cigarette Use Among Youth
It’s time to catch your breath. Actually, that would be CATCH My Breath, a UTHealth School of Public Health program on the frontline of the battle to reduce or eliminate the use of e-cigarette products in schools.E-cigarette Prevention: CATCH My Breath for Middle School and High School
Learn how teachers, parents, and health professionals in the school/after-school setting can equip students with answers about E-cigarettes.