ArticleBMC public health2014
The COMPASS study: a longitudinal hierarchical research platform for evaluating natural experiments related to changes in school-level programs, policies and built environment resources.
Article in BMC public health, 2014. The graph could read no effect estimate from its abstract, so it casts no vote on the map. Cited by 160 papers, 2 of them syntheses that pooled it.
What it found
Each row is one number read from the abstract, on the scale the paper reported it, with its interval. Left of the dashed line favours the treatment, right favours the comparator. Under each row is the sentence it came from. New to these charts? A ten-minute tutorial.
The abstract states no effect estimate the extractor could read, or names no intervention and outcome on the map, so this paper lights no cell and moves no belief. It is still indexed, cited and linked below.
The trial behind it
Trials whose registry record cites this paper, or whose number appears in the abstract. A trial that started after this paper was published is citing it as background, not reporting it.
Neither the registry nor the abstract names a trial number. If this is a trial report, that itself is worth knowing.
Who cites it
160 citing papers in PubMed, 2 syntheses or guidelines pooled it, 307 citations in OpenAlex.
- A systematic review of existing observational tools to measure the food and physical activity environment in schools.Health & place · 2020Pooled it
- Strategies for enhancing the implementation of school-based policies or practices targeting risk factors for chronic disease.The Cochrane database of systematic reviews · 2017Pooled it
- The role of perceived access to cannabis in the association between friends who use cannabis and adolescent initiation: A longitudinal analysis from the Canadian COMPASS study.Addiction (Abingdon, England) · 2026Observational
- Study protocol for a quasi-experimental investigation of the effectiveness of the 'CATCH My Breath' vaping prevention curriculum at preventing vaping outcomes among high school students in Ontario, Canada.BMC public health · 2026Article
- Short-term outcomes of Quebec's ban on flavoured vaping products on adolescent electronic cigarette use: a 2022-2024 COMPASS longitudinal analysis.Canadian journal of public health = Revue canadienne de sante publique · 2026Article
- Emerging use of oral nicotine pouches among Canadian adolescents: Findings from the COMPASS-Quebec study.Canadian journal of public health = Revue canadienne de sante publique · 2026Article
- Investigating public health unit engagement in secondary schools and student substance use over time.Canadian journal of public health = Revue canadienne de sante publique · 2026Article
- A Prospective Study of Mental Health in Relation to Online Gambling One-year Later in a Large Cohort of Adolescents in Canada.Journal of gambling studies · 2026Article
- Associations between naturally occurring school engagement with public health units and adolescent mental health.PloS one · 2026Article
- Article
- Life meaning and purpose as an unrecognized determinant of mental health equity in Canadian adolescents.BMC public health · 2025Article
- Using decision trees to examine risk profiles for cannabis use among large samples of underage youth before and after cannabis legalization in Canada.Addictive behaviors reports · 2025Article
- Redefining the gender identity spectrum in longitudinal studies: adolescent response patterns after adopting the two-step measure of sex and gender.Health promotion and chronic disease prevention in Canada : research, policy and practice · 2025Article
- Association between increased screen time during the COVID-19 pandemic and changes in alcohol use behaviours among Canadian adolescents: a prospective cohort study.Health promotion and chronic disease prevention in Canada : research, policy and practice · 2025Article
- Validation of the ecological momentary well-being instrument (EMOWI) in Canadian adolescents.Quality of life research : an international journal of quality of life aspects of treatment, care and rehabilitation · 2025Article
- Measurement invariance of a brief disordered eating scale in a large sample of secondary school students in Canada.Journal of eating disorders · 2025Article
- Prospective Relations Between Self-Concept and Adolescent Physical Education Participation: A Sex Stratified Analysis.Journal of adolescence · 2025Article
- Examining the association between public health unit spending and adolescent substance use.Heliyon · 2025Article
- Prevalence of Out-Of-Home Care Among School-Aged Children in Canada, 2002-2018: An Analysis of Nationally-Representative Student Survey Data.International journal of public health · 2025Article
- Investigating the association between school substance programs and student substance use: accounting for informative cluster size.Epidemiologic methods · 2025Article
100 more citing papers are in PubMed but not listed here.
Corrections and comments
PubMed lists nothing against this paper. Absence here is not a guarantee, only a check that was made.
Authors and funding
13 authors at 4 institutions in 1 country.
Funding
Abstract
backgroundFew researchers have the data required to adequately understand how the school environment impacts youth health behaviour development over time. METHODS/
designCOMPASS is a prospective cohort study designed to annually collect hierarchical longitudinal data from a sample of 90 secondary schools and the 50,000+ grade 9 to 12 students attending those schools. COMPASS uses a rigorous quasi-experimental design to evaluate how changes in school programs, policies, and/or built environment (BE) characteristics are related to changes in multiple youth health behaviours and outcomes over time. These data will allow for the quasi-experimental evaluation of natural experiments that will occur within schools over the course of COMPASS, providing a means for generating "practice based evidence" in school-based prevention programming. DISCUSSION: COMPASS is the first study with the infrastructure to robustly evaluate the impact that changes in multiple school-level programs, policies, and BE characteristics within or surrounding a school might have on multiple youth health behaviours or outcomes over time. COMPASS will provide valuable new insight for planning, tailoring and targeting of school-based prevention initiatives where they are most likely to have impact.
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What OpenQuestion holds
Registered trials
Read under generation 80e0d062 · epoch 390. Bibliography from PubMed, PubMed Central and OpenAlex; grants from NIH RePORTER; trial links from ClinicalTrials.gov; estimates, votes and beliefs from the OpenQuestion graph.