Detour: a Smartphone Game to Help Youth Quit Smoking
Behavioural Science Institute
604 participants
Jul 5, 2024
INTERVENTIONAL
Conditions
Summary
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
Inclusion Criteria4
- 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.
Exclusion Criteria3
- 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?).
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Interventions
"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.
The 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.
Locations(1)
View Full Details on ClinicalTrials.gov
For the most up-to-date information, visit the official listing.
NCT06675526