Personalized Mobile Phone App Intervention: Challenging Alcohol Expectancies to Reduce High-risk Alcohol Use and Consequences
Phase: NA
Conditions: Alcohol; Use, Problem
Sponsor: University of Washington

 
Official Title: Personalized Mobile Phone App Intervention: Challenging Alcohol Expectancies 
to Reduce High-risk Alcohol Use and Consequences  
 
NCT number: NCT04213846  
 
Document Date: May 24, 2024 
 
 

STUDY PROTOCOL 
 
The purpose of the study is to develop and test a smartphone/mobile app intervention to target 
high-risk alcohol use among young adult college students. The intervention incorporates three 
weeks of ecological momentary assessment (EMA, i.e., two brief surveys per day) and daily 
intervention messaging (2 messages per day). The intervention content mainly focuses on 
alcohol expectancies, alcohol use, and consequences and how these constructs are interrelated 
and includes personalized intervention messages based on participants' own event-level alcohol 
expectancies and experiences. Other psycho-educational alcohol-related content is also 
provided over the course of the three-week intervention.  
 
The study design is a randomized clinical trial; participants are randomized to either the 
intervention condition or to an assessment-only condition. All participants completed an online 
or in-person informational/training session, an online baseline assessment, twice-daily surveys 
for 21 days, and online 1-month, 6-month, and 12-month follow-up assessments with additional 
twice-daily surveys for 14 days at each follow-up period.  
 
College students were recruited from registrar’s lists from three college campuses in the Seattle 
metropolitan area (i.e., two community colleges and one 4-year university) and sent initial 
information about the study via US mail. Students also received an email with an invitation to 
participate in an online screening survey to determine eligibility for the larger study. For those 
who went to the screening survey, they were first presented with an information statement and 
asked to electronically consent to participation. 
 
To supplement these methods, recruitment also took place through social media, newspaper 
and other online advertisements and flyers posted around local colleges and nearby 
businesses. Interested individuals were directed to the study website to review an information 
statement and participate in a brief survey to obtain contact information and initial screening 
items. Participants who met initial criteria were contacted by study staff to verify their identity 
before proceeding to the full study screening process. 
 
Participants who met eligibility criteria on the screening survey were presented with an 
information statement for the full longitudinal study. Upon providing electronic consent, 
participants completed a 30-35 minute baseline assessment. At the completion of the baseline 
survey, students were asked to schedule a training session conducted either in-person or 
virtually via Zoom. Prior to the training session, participants were randomized to one of two 
conditions (i.e., intervention condition or assessment-only control condition) by computer 
algorithm and stratified on biological sex, typical drinks per week, and college status. During the 
training session, participants were shown a PowerPoint presentation to aid in a discussion of 
the EMA survey process and study procedures, had the opportunity to ask study staff questions, 
and installed the web-based application on their mobile phone. Participants randomized to 
intervention condition had the capabilities within the app for EMA data collection and for viewing 
intervention content, whereas those randomized to the control condition only had the ability to 
utilize the app for EMA data collection. After completing the training session, participants were 
considered enrolled in the study.  
 
The day after the training session, participants in both conditions completed twice daily surveys 
in the mobile app for 21 days. Morning assessments could be completed between 8am and 
1pm.  Afternoon assessments could be completed between 3pm and 7pm. Participants in the 
intervention condition also received intervention messages twice a day (timed to occur after 
completion of the assessment or generated at 1pm and 7pm, whichever was sooner).  

 
Participants were asked to completed online follow-up assessments at 1-, 6-, and 12-months 
post-intervention. Follow-up assessments include both an online survey and 14 days of twice-
daily EMA assessments. Participants received follow-up calls, emails, and text messages at 
each follow-up assessment. 
  
Participants were compensated with Amazon.com eGift cards for completion of surveys with a 
total compensation of up to $435 if they completed all assessments. Participants received $20 
for the Screening survey, $25 for the Baseline survey, $2 for each completed Daily EMA survey 
(2x/day for 21 days after baseline survey) with $84 possible, $20 for the 1-month follow-up 
survey, $30 for the 6-month follow-up survey, and $35 for the 12-month follow-up survey. 
Follow-up daily EMA assessments were compensated at the rate of $2 for each completed 
assessment (2x/day for each 14 days period) with total $168 possible. A bonus of $7 per week 
during the EMA periods was also received if 12/14 surveys are completed each week with $63 
possible across the study period.