Detour: a Smartphone Game to Help Youth Quit Smoking
Trial statusRecruiting
Trial phaseNot applicable
Trial typeInterventional
Biological sexAll
Age16-25
SponsorBehavioural Science Institute
About this trial
The researchers are testing a mobile game (named Detour) to support smoking cessation in adolescents and young adults (16-25 years). The game will be tested in a randomized-controlled trial (RCT) where Detour is tested against a digital self-help brochure ("Jouw eigen plan om te stoppen met roken" \[in English: Your personal plan to quit smoking\]) as the active control group. The researchers will recruit 604 participants (aged 16-25) and randomly assign them to receive the game or brochure intervention. The duration between pre-test and post-test for both groups is 5 weeks during which participants can access (parts of) their respective intervention. All participants quit smoking at the end of week 1 of the intervention period. Data is collected on smoking behaviour, intervention usage, and emotional well-being.
Eligibility criteria
This trial does not accept healthy volunteersQualifiers
aged 16 to 25 years
smokes at least weekly
motivated to quit smoking (participants should answer "misschien", "waarschijnlijk" or "heel erg" to the question are you motivated to quit smoking at this specific moment?).
installed Detour application; only applicable for participants assigned to the game intervention group.
Disqualifiers
younger than 16 or older than 25
smoke less than once a week
not motivated to quit smoking are not eligible for this study i.e. participants who answered "helemaal niet"/"not at all") or "onwaarschijnlijk"/"unlikely" to the question are you motivated to quit smoking at this specific moment?).
Trial design
Design model
Parallel
Treatments tested in this trial
Detour
Behavioral"Detour" is a mobile game designed to assist youth with smoking cessation. First, Detour targets stimuli devaluation using a gamified go/no-go training. Second, the researchers aimed to reduce delay discounting in two ways; 1) players can replace neutral images in the go/no-go training with positive images from their own lives related to their future self; 2) players can set and monitor personal goals via the game, to promote future-self priming. Third, participants join a social shell comprising Instagram and TikTok content to provide psychoeducation about quitting smoking and to interact with fellow players who quit simultaneously. Finally, the timing and content of in-game messaging is personalized to each participant based on information provided in an ecological momentary assessment component and a stop plan filled out during the week before the quit attempt.
Self-help brochure
BehavioralThe brochure provides guidelines to independently design a stop-plan including questions about seeking support from others, strategies to fight cravings, and setting rewards for milestones after quitting. Participants will be encouraged to complete this stop-plan in week 0 of the intervention, so the week before quit day. Additionally, the brochure includes psychoeducational information that is valuable when planning to quit smoking.
Treatment groups
604 Participants
are divided into 2 treatment groupsGroup A: DetourExperimental treatment 1 intervention
Group B: Digital self-help materialActive comparator 1 intervention
Trial outcomes
Primary outcomes
1
Smoking abstinence
The primary outcome measure will be 14-day point prevalence abstinence (yes/no) at six month follow-up i.e. 6 months from quit date.
Time frame
6 month follow-upSecondary outcomes
1
Smoking abstinence
The primary outcome measure will be 14-day point prevalence abstinence (yes/no) at post test immediately after the 5-week intervention period.
Time frame
immediate post-test after 5-week intervention period2
Weekly smoking
Weekly smoking behavior will be assessed with two questions 1) "How many days per week do you smoke on average?" and "On a day that you smoke, how many cigarettes do you smoke on average?". Weekly smoking behaviour will be assessed at pre-test within the week before the intervention begins, at immediate post-test after 5-week intervention period, at 3-month follow-up from quit date, and at 6-month follow-up from quit date. The answers to these questions will be multiplied to come to a single measure of weekly smoking. If participants remain abstinent, weekly smoking will be set to 0.
Time frame
pre-test, immediate post-test after 5-week intervention period, 3-month follow-up, and 6-month follow-upSponsors and contacts
Click on the lead sponsor to view all of their trials.
Behavioural Science Institute
Lead sponsor
Erasmus Medical Center
Collaborator
Stichting Trimbos-Instituut
Collaborator
Source ClinicalTrials.gov