Clinical trial NCT06880692: The Tick App: Changing Behaviors With Educational Messaging
Official title: The Use of Ecological Momentary Assessments to Assess Tick-borne Disease Risk
Study type: INTERVENTIONAL
Overall status: RECRUITING
Phase: NA
Conditions: Tick Bites
Keywords: tick education
behavior change
tick bite prevention
Lead sponsor: University of Wisconsin, Madison
Sponsor class: OTHER
Collaborators: name: Centers for Disease Control and Prevention
name: University of Illinois at Chicago
name: Michigan State University
name: Columbia University
name: Washington State University
First posted: 2025-03-18
Enrollment: 1000
Sex: ALL
Minimum age (years): 18
Standard ages: ADULT
OLDER_ADULT
Accepts healthy volunteers: yes
Allocation: RANDOMIZED
Intervention model: PARALLEL
Primary purpose: OTHER

Brief summary: The goal of this work is to evaluate the use of ecological momentary assessments as a tool to assess risk and risk factors for tick encounters and tick-borne diseases. This study will be conducted across the United States, with a focus the upper Midwest and Northeast and with a focus on Wisconsin and will enroll up to 1000 people.

Detailed description: In the United States, several online and smart-phone apps are available to ID a tick (TickID app, North Carolina State University), submit a picture of a tick (TickSpotters.org, an outreach tool within the larger TickEncounter resource center by the University of Rhode Island) or submit a tick for testing (among other public health agencies, TickReport.com by the University of Massachusetts Amherst). Although these tools are accessible throughout the U.S., they focus on the Northeast. In addition, they do not assess human behavior and tick encounters nor do these tools evaluate prevention and education strategies. A recent study in the Netherlands evaluated the use and effectiveness of a preventative and educational tick app ("Tekenbeet"). This app was well-appreciated, well-used, and improved the user's intention to implement preventative measures. This also illustrates the move of information acquisition from in-hand leaflets to information provision through smartphones.

In this study, data on human behavior regarding tick encounters and tick prevention measures will be obtained from a smartphone application using momentary assessments methodology to assess real time behavior and movement. Ecological momentary assessments are a methodological tool for gathering quantitative behavioral data in real-time, or within the framework of a participant's daily routine.

The daily logs feature provides researchers information about what the participant's activity, location, tick encounters, and prevention measures used. This study will analyze participants who complete 7 daily logs. Their daily logs will be analyzed against the types of educational messaging presented to them within the Tick App.

During a portion of the year the opening screen will contain a prevention message and daily log reminder instead of the home screen. The screen will provide a tick check reminder, a link to the daily log and for half the users the screen will also include a reminder about another prevention behavior (for example bathing/showering). Users will be randomly assigned to the two groups to assess if the additional prevention message increases prevention behavior (tick checks and showering/bathing) and the number of tick encounters.

Eligibility criteria: Inclusion Criteria:

* Will to participate in 7 days worth of daily activity logs within the Tick App.
* be able and willing to provide informed consent

Exclusion Criteria:

* Completes less than 7 days worth of daily logs or completes 7+ daily logs but not within 12 months.

Primary outcomes:
measure: Change in number of tick prevention behaviors
timeFrame: up to 12 months
Secondary outcomes:
measure: Change in number of self-reported tick encounters
timeFrame: up to 12 months
Other outcomes:
Locations:
city: Urbana
country: United States
facility: University of Illinois
state: Illinois
city: East Lansing
country: United States
facility: Michigan State University
state: Michigan
city: New York
country: United States
facility: Columbia University
state: New York
city: Pullman
country: United States
facility: Washington State University
state: Washington
Study officials:
affiliation: University of Wisconsin, Madison
name: Susan Paskewitz
role: PRINCIPAL_INVESTIGATOR
affiliation: University of Wisconsin, Madison
name: Lyric Bartholomay
role: PRINCIPAL_INVESTIGATOR
References: