Clinical trial NCT05732220: Mobile EMA-based Peer Counselling for Youth Smokers
Official title: Mobile Ecological Momentary Assessment-based Peer Counselling for Youth Smokers: a Pilot Randomised Controlled Trial
Study type: INTERVENTIONAL
Overall status: ACTIVE_NOT_RECRUITING
Phase: NA
Conditions: Smoking Cessation
Keywords: counselling
ecological momentary assessment
young smoker
mobile health
adolescsent
quitline
Chinese
Lead sponsor: The University of Hong Kong
Sponsor class: OTHER
First posted: 2023-02-16
Enrollment: 105
Sex: ALL
Minimum age (years): 15
Maximum age (years): 25
Standard ages: CHILD
ADULT
Accepts healthy volunteers: yes
Allocation: RANDOMIZED
Intervention model: PARALLEL
Primary purpose: TREATMENT

Brief summary: This pilot trial aims to examine the feasibility, acceptability, and preliminary effectiveness of EMA-based peer counseling for youth smokers.

Detailed description: Most smokers begin smoking during adolescence and early adulthood, a crucial period to prevent initiation and continuation of smoking. However, many proven smoking cessation interventions for adult smokers were not found effective in youth smokers, which may be partly explained by the vast differences in the pattern of tobacco use and determinants of quitting between adult and youth smokers. This calls for more research on novel intervention models to help young smokers quit.

The HKU Youth Quitline provides free smoking cessation support for smokers aged below 25 years since August 2005 in Hong Kong. The service provides multisession peer-led telephone counselling with an individualised quit plan devised for each young smoker according to their responses. Since the counselling model depends on the information retrospectively recalled by the smokers, it may be prone to recall and social desirability biases and fail to capture the variability of youth smoking patterns and momentary changes in personal (e.g., mood) and situational (e.g., peer smoking) antecedents of smoking episodes.

Recent advances in mobile technologies have enabled the use of more advanced and robust data collection approaches like ecological momentary assessment (EMA), which may benefit the counselling model by providing more ecologically valid data than traditional surveys. Previous studies have demonstrated the feasibility of using EMA to collect data on psychosocial processes and smoking behaviours in adolescent smokers. Therefore, we propose to develop and test a mobile EMA-based counselling intervention for youth smokers by conducting a pilot RCT.

Eligibility criteria: Inclusion Criteria:

1. Age between 15 to 25 years
2. Have smoked in the past 30 days
3. Own a smartphone with an mobile instant messaging app installed
4. Can communicate in Chinese

Exclusion Criteria:

Youth smokers who are participating in other smoking cessation studies or program other than the HKU Youth Quitline

Primary outcomes:
measure: Biochemically-validated tobacco abstinence
timeFrame: 6 months after randomisation
Secondary outcomes:
measure: Self-reported 7-day point-prevalence tobacco abstinence
timeFrame: 3 months after randomisation
measure: Self-reported 7-day point-prevalence tobacco abstinence
timeFrame: 6 months after randomisation
measure: Self-reported 30-day point-prevalence tobacco abstinence
timeFrame: 3 months after randomisation
measure: Self-reported 30-day point-prevalence tobacco abstinence
timeFrame: 6 months after randomisation
measure: Smoking reduction by at least 50%
timeFrame: 3 months after randomisation
measure: Smoking reduction by at least 50%
timeFrame: 6 months after randomisation
Other outcomes:
measure: Recruitment rate
timeFrame: Through recruitment completion, about 6 months
measure: Retention rate
timeFrame: 6 months after randomisation
Locations:
city: Hong Kong
country: Hong Kong
facility: HKU Youth Quitline
Study officials:
affiliation: The University of Hong Kong
name: Tzu Tsun Luk, PhD, RN
role: PRINCIPAL_INVESTIGATOR
References:
citation: Chan SS, Wong DC, Fong DY, Leung AY, Lam DO, Mak YW, Lam TH. The establishment and promotion of the first Youth Quitline in Hong Kong: challenges and opportunities. Eval Health Prof. 2008 Sep;31(3):258-71. doi: 10.1177/0163278708320156. Epub 2008 Jun 19.
citation: Shiffman S, Stone AA, Hufford MR. Ecological momentary assessment. Annu Rev Clin Psychol. 2008;4:1-32. doi: 10.1146/annurev.clinpsy.3.022806.091415.
citation: Van Zundert RM, Ferguson SG, Shiffman S, Engels R. Dynamic effects of craving and negative affect on adolescent smoking relapse. Health Psychol. 2012 Mar;31(2):226-34. doi: 10.1037/a0025204. Epub 2011 Sep 26.
citation: McClure EA, Tomko RL, Carpenter MJ, Treiber FA, Gray KM. Acceptability and compliance with a remote monitoring system to track smoking and abstinence among young smokers. Am J Drug Alcohol Abuse. 2018;44(5):561-570. doi: 10.1080/00952990.2018.1467431. Epub 2018 May 8.
citation: Fanshawe TR, Halliwell W, Lindson N, Aveyard P, Livingstone-Banks J, Hartmann-Boyce J. Tobacco cessation interventions for young people. Cochrane Database Syst Rev. 2017 Nov 17;11(11):CD003289. doi: 10.1002/14651858.CD003289.pub6.