Behind the Wheel (BTW) Smartphone Application

Motao Zhu

Status: Active, not recruiting

Conditions: High-risk Driving Events

Treatments: Behavioral: BTW app with reward-based feedback; Behavioral: Sham BTW app; Behavioral: BTW app with situational supervised driving practice

Study type: Interventional

Funder types: Other; Other U.S. Federal agency

Identifiers

NCT05554614

FP00001219 (Other Grant/Funding Number)

STUDY00002565

Details and patient eligibility

About

The purpose of this study is to find out if a phone app can help the learning-to-drive process among teenagers and novice drivers.

Full description

This project will assess the feasibility and preliminary efficacy of an app (BTW) to quantify driving behaviors and promote safe driving in adolescents who are beginning their learner period of licensure. 90 teens and their corresponding parents/guardians will be randomized into one of three study groups. Researchers aim to test the feasibility of the BTW app on acceptance and retention, evaluate the preliminary efficacy of the BTW app with a teen-parent dyad intervention on driving performance after using the BTW app for six months, and investigate the long-term effects of the BTW app intervention on driving performance and safety attitudes among teens.

Enrollment: 180 estimated patients

Sex: All

Ages: 15 to 17 years old

Volunteers: Accepts Healthy Volunteers

Inclusion criteria

• Teen participants must be between the ages of 15.5-17 years old at the time of enrollment
• Participants must have one parent and/or legal guardian who agrees to participate in the study.
• Participants' parents must possess car insurance with at least state-minimum coverage.
• Participants must be willing to fulfill the minimum requirements of the Ohio GDL system.
• Driver must complete a driver education class at a licensed driver training school with 24 hours of classroom or online instruction and 8 hours of driving time; driver must complete 50 hours of driving with at least 10 hours of night driving; driver must hold the permit for at least 6 months.
• Participants must have a functioning smartphone and active smartphone account compatible for the BTW app.
• To prevent any interference from another driving-related study, participants must agree not to enroll in other driving-related research/driving performance app during the study period.
• Participants must be willing to be randomized and comply with study requirements.
• Participants must speak and read English.
• Participants must be a US citizen or have permanent resident status.

Exclusion criteria

• Drivers younger than 15.5 will be excluded because Ohio does not issue a temporary instruction driving permit identification card (i.e., learner's driving permit) starting the GDL process until age 15.5.

Trial design

Primary purpose: Other

Allocation: Randomized

Interventional model: Parallel Assignment

Masking: None (Open label)

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180 participants in 3 patient groups

BTW app with reward-based feedback

Experimental group

Description:

Teens will install the BTW app with reward-based feedback. This tracks driving performance while providing individualized driving feedback using gamification concepts.

Treatment:

Behavioral: BTW app with reward-based feedback

Behavioral: BTW app with situational supervised driving practice

BTW app with situational supervised driving practice

Experimental group

Description:

Teens will install the BTW app the same as the app with reward-based feedback in conjunction with a situational supervised driving practice intervention for teen-parent dyads.

Treatment:

Behavioral: BTW app with situational supervised driving practice

Sham BTW app

Sham Comparator group

Description:

Teens will install the sham BTW app with driving performance tracking only.

Treatment:

Behavioral: Sham BTW app