An Exercise App to Reduce Young Adults' MJ Use
Condition: Marijuana Smoking
MeSH terms: Marijuana Abuse; Marijuana Use
Study type: Interventional

Summary: 
      Currently, marijuana (MJ) is the most popular illicit drug, but there are few effective
      interventions to help young adults (age 18 to 25 years) to reduce their MJ intake. In this
      study, we will develop and initially test a smart phone app designed to promote
      exercise/physical activity as a positive alternative to MJ use. The app will be tested in an
      efficacy study in which MJ users are randomly to either receive personalized feedback about
      MJ use + use the exercise app or personalized feedback only. The results will contribute to
      knowledge about exercise/physical activity as a strategy for reducing young adults' MJ use
      and problems.
    

Detailed description: 
      Currently, marijuana (MJ) is the most popular illicit drug, with prevalence studies
      indicating increasing use among young adults (Johnston et al., 2011). Even so, there are few
      effective interventions to help MJ users reduce their intake to avoid negative consequences,
      including MJ dependence. The investigators propose a Stage 1 efficacy study to develop and
      initially test an innovative intervention to reduce MJ use among young adults who regularly
      use MJ (> 3 episodes/week). The intervention includes elements from the Marijuana Check-Up
      (MCU; Stephens et al., 2007), a MI-based brief intervention that has shown promise for
      reducing MJ use. It also incorporates findings from our ongoing research, which suggest that
      exercise/physical activity (PA) has potential as a positive alternative to MJ use. The
      investigators research also has shown that short (i.e., 10 minute) bouts of moderate or
      intense exercise reduce craving/urges to use MJ. Exercise interventions have successfully
      reduced use of licit substances, such as tobacco (e.g., Marcus et al., 2005) and alcohol
      (e.g., Brown et al., 2009), but have not been adequately tested for MJ use. The two aims of
      this R34 application are: 1) To develop an intervention that consists of four, 60-minute,
      in-person sessions composed of MCU content (e.g., personalized feedback, MI) as well as a
      smart phone application (app) that promotes exercise/physical activity (EA) as an alternative
      to MJ use. The EA, which will be designed to specifically appeal to young adults, will
      provide a readily-accessible, flexible, and convenient platform for personalized information
      and reminders that promote exercise/PA as a positive alternative to MJ use in ongoing daily
      life. 2) To conduct a pilot/efficacy study of the 4-week MCU+EA intervention vs. a MCU-only
      control condition. The investigators will use urn randomization to assign
      emerging/young-adult MJ users (N = 40) to the two conditions. During the 1-week baseline,
      4-week intervention phase, and 1-, 3-, and 6-month follow-ups, all participants will use the
      smart phone app to provide real-time data on MJ-related variables and wear accelerometers to
      provide PA data. Multilevel modeling will be used to test our hypothesis that the MCU+EA
      intervention, compared to MCU-only control, will produce greater decreases in quantity and
      frequency of MJ use (and related MJ problems) at post-intervention and at each follow-up.
      Multilevel modeling also will be used to explore the real-time data to examine the role of
      variables such as urge/craving for MJ, social factors, and dosage of PA in the reduction of
      the quantity and frequency of MJ use. This Stage 1 study is unique and innovative in its
      development and use of a smart phone app to promote and evaluate exercise/PA as a positive
      alternative to MJ use in daily life. It includes cutting-edge technology (e.g.,
      accelerometers, smart phone app) for real-time assessments. This research will make
      significant contributions to the limited knowledge of exercise/PA as a strategy for reducing
      MJ use and related problems among emerging and young adults.
    

Intervention name(s): Personalized Feedback and Exercise
Intervention type(s): Behavioral
Allocation: Randomized
Intervention model: Parallel Assignment
Masking: None (Open Label)
Primary purpose: Prevention