EMA of Substance Use in Homeless Youth

Nationwide Children's Hospital

Status: Completed

Conditions: Substance Use

Treatments: Behavioral: Ecological Momentary Assessment (EMA; Metricwire) Prompts 6x/day; Behavioral: Ecological Momentary Assessment (EMA; Metricwire) Prompts 3x/day; Behavioral: Incentive Structure - prize based; Behavioral: Incentive Structure - fixed

Study type: Interventional

Funder types: Other

Identifiers

NCT04884087

STUDY00000809

Details and patient eligibility

About

The proposed study will provide critical information on Ecological Momentary Assessment (EMA) design characteristics that promote retention in a vulnerable and under-represented population in research-youth experiencing homelessness. The study will use an EMA app to collect substance use, mood, craving, social surroundings, and trauma measures over a 14-day period in youth age 18-24 (n=40) recruited from Star House, a homeless youth drop-in center. Youth will be randomized in 2x2 factorial design (fixed incentive model vs. prize-based model; random assessment 3x vs. 6x per day).

Enrollment: 40 patients

Sex: All

Ages: 18 to 24 years old

Volunteers: No Healthy Volunteers

Inclusion criteria

• currently homeless, defined as lacking a fixed, regular, and adequate nighttime residence.
• report any of the following past-month frequencies of substance use (NIDA ASSIST screen) used in prior EMA studies: a) heavy episodic or "binge" drinking (≥4 drinks per day for women/≥5 drinks for men) ≥2 days per month ; b) marijuana use ≥2 days per week; or c) any illicit drug use.

Exclusion criteria

Trial design

Primary purpose: Other

Allocation: Randomized

Interventional model: Factorial Assignment

Masking: None (Open label)

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40 participants in 4 patient groups

EMA, 3x/day, fixed incentive

Experimental group

Description:

Ecological Momentary Assessment (EMA; Metricwire). Participants randomized to this group will be sent prompts through the EMA app to complete brief EMA survey at 3 random times per day. Participants randomized to this group will earn a fixed bonus/incentive based on completion of the EMA surveys (50-74%=$3; 75-89%=$5; ≥90%=$10) each week.

Treatment:

Behavioral: Ecological Momentary Assessment (EMA; Metricwire) Prompts 3x/day

Behavioral: Incentive Structure - fixed

EMA, 6x/day, fixed incentive

Experimental group

Description:

Ecological Momentary Assessment (EMA; Metricwire). Participants randomized to this group will be sent prompts through the EMA app to complete brief EMA survey at 6 random times per day. Participants randomized to this group will earn a fixed bonus/incentive based on completion of the EMA surveys (50-74%=$3; 75-89%=$5; ≥90%=$10) each week.

Treatment:

Behavioral: Ecological Momentary Assessment (EMA; Metricwire) Prompts 6x/day

Behavioral: Incentive Structure - fixed

EMA, 3x/day, prize-based incentive

Experimental group

Description:

Ecological Momentary Assessment (EMA; Metricwire). Participants randomized to this group will be sent prompts through the EMA app to complete brief EMA survey at 3 random times per day. Participants randomized to this group will be rewarded for high survey completion with increasing numbers of "draws" for prizes depending on their level of response each week (50-74%=1 draw, 75-89%=2 draws, ≥90%=3 draws).

Treatment:

Behavioral: Incentive Structure - prize based

Behavioral: Ecological Momentary Assessment (EMA; Metricwire) Prompts 3x/day

EMA, 6x/day, prized-based incentive

Experimental group

Description:

Ecological Momentary Assessment (EMA; Metricwire). Participants randomized to this group will be sent prompts through the EMA app to complete brief EMA survey at 6 random times per day. Participants randomized to this group will be rewarded for high survey completion with increasing numbers of "draws" for prizes depending on their level of response each week (50-74%=1 draw, 75-89%=2 draws, ≥90%=3 draws).

Treatment:

Behavioral: Ecological Momentary Assessment (EMA; Metricwire) Prompts 6x/day

Behavioral: Incentive Structure - prize based