Behavioral Economic Treatment to Enhance Rural (BETTER) Living

University of Michigan

Status: Completed

Conditions: Alcohol Use, Unspecified

Treatments: Behavioral: Volitional choice; Behavioral: Monitoring only; Behavioral: Episodic Future thinking

Study type: Interventional

Funder types: Other; NIH

Identifiers

NCT05235971

1K23AA028232 (U.S. NIH Grant/Contract)

HUM00181940

Details and patient eligibility

About

The purpose of this trial is to get feedback to help develop programs delivered by phone and text messages to improve wellness and health behaviors. This study will enroll adult participants that have been seen in primary care settings and live in rurally designated areas.

Full description

This study will evaluate acceptability and feasibility of two remotely-delivered behavioral economic intervention components, alone and in combination, using remote text message delivery. The two intervention components are an episodic future thinking component and a volitional choice component. The goal of this work is to develop and determine acceptability and feasibility of a well-specified, accessible, and theory-driven mobile health intervention to reduce harmful alcohol use in people living in rural regions.

Enrollment: 75 patients

Sex: All

Ages: 18+ years old

Volunteers: No Healthy Volunteers

Inclusion and exclusion criteria

Screening Inclusion Criteria:

• adults presenting in Michigan Medicine primary care
• home address in a rurally designated area (e.g., zip code, county),
• documented alcohol use in the Electronic Health Record (EHR) (e.g., alcohol use disorder diagnosis, alcohol misuse or heavy alcohol consumption).

Baseline inclusion criteria:

• an Alcohol Use Disorders Identification Test (AUDIT-C) score of ≥3 in females or ≥4 in males
• regular access to an internet-enabled device (e.g., smart phone, computer, tablet).

Exclusion Criteria:

• Does not understand English
• currently pregnant
• unable to provide informed consent due to medical/psychiatric reasons
• currently in treatment for a substance use disorder.

Trial design

Primary purpose: Prevention

Allocation: Randomized

Interventional model: Factorial Assignment

Masking: Double Blind

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75 participants in 4 patient groups

Episodic Future thinking (EFT)

Experimental group

Description:

Participants will receive up to 3 messages a day that include assessment and intervention messages.The messages will describe positive, non-alcohol related events at future time points to facilitate extension of temporal consideration toward future-focused perspectives.

Treatment:

Behavioral: Episodic Future thinking

Volitional choice (VC)

Experimental group

Description:

VC creates structured if-then plans to dismantle context-linked alcohol use. Participants will receive up to 3 messages a day that include assessment and intervention messages.

Treatment:

Behavioral: Volitional choice

Episodic Future thinking plus Volitional choice

Experimental group

Description:

Participants will receive both EFT and VC interventions with text messages.

Treatment:

Behavioral: Episodic Future thinking

Behavioral: Volitional choice

Monitoring only

Other group

Description:

This is a control group in which participants will receive general psychoeducation.

Treatment:

Behavioral: Monitoring only