Clinical trial NCT06235333: Exploring a Lottery-promoted Gambling Disorder Screening Day Intervention
Official title: Exploring a Lottery-promoted Gambling Disorder Screening Day Intervention
Study type: INTERVENTIONAL
Overall status: NOT_YET_RECRUITING
Phase: NA
Conditions: Gambling Problem
Keywords: brief screening
Lead sponsor: Cambridge Health Alliance
Sponsor class: OTHER
Collaborators: name: International Center for Responsible Gaming
name: Hoosier Lottery, Indiana
First posted: 2024-01-31
Enrollment: 4500
Sex: ALL
Minimum age (years): 18
Maximum age (years): 100
Standard ages: ADULT
OLDER_ADULT
Accepts healthy volunteers: yes
Allocation: RANDOMIZED
Intervention model: PARALLEL
Intervention model description: There are two possible conditions: (1) intervention, which consists of a branching responsible/problem gambling information and gambling screening experience and (20 control, which consists of limited responsible/problem gambling information experience.
Primary purpose: SCREENING

Brief summary: The study is a randomized trial of gambling screening plus feedback (intervention) or gambling information (control) conditions, with data collection at baseline (T1) and a 3-month follow-up (T2). Two participant recruitment strategies (i.e., Hoosier Lottery cohort and MTurk Workers cohort) will allow the investigators to compare how recruitment source relates to post-intervention gambling behavior change intentions and assorted gambling-related behavior changes. The investigators also seek to understand how experiences with screening vary for minoritized and non-minoritized people who gamble.

Detailed description: Gambling Disorder Screening Day (GDSD) occurs on the second Tuesday of March annually. This events is modeled after National Alcohol and Depression Screening Days, which research shows increase awareness and help-seeking for these problems. There has never been a study of the impacts of GDSD on its participants. The event is growing in popularity across Massachusetts, the U.S., and around the world, which makes its assessment imperative. Gambling operators might be able to support independent public health interventions for safer gambling due to their reach (e.g., through email marketing lists) among gamblers. Operator involvement in such efforts would help fulfill their responsibility for promoting safer gambling and help-seeking. Although limited public health expertise and opposing financial interests limit the value of operators' direct involvement in public health intervention, the value of indirect support through promoting third-party public health efforts remains an open question. Accordingly, this study considers how gambling operators might contribute to gamblers' participation in GDSD, and how it compares to another technique (e.g., MTurk) that offers high engagement.

As the event grows in popularity, it is imperative to ensure that GDSD has the intended effects, especially for high-reach supporters, such as gambling operators. This is particularly important for different types of people who might be more or less receptive to operator-promoted GDSD events. The investigators might, for example, expect to observe differences depending upon individuals' race/ethnicity status. Individuals minoritized by race/ethnicity have distinct barriers to help-seeking, including previous healthcare discrimination, lack of culturally and linguistically appropriate care, and an absence of resources and treatment opportunities designed with their unique needs and cultures in mind. Operator-promoted GDSD events, therefore, might need to be tailored to ensure reach, receptivity, and responsivity among minoritized people.

This study will provide information that can shape future gambling industry involvement in public health events, and simultaneously, complete a large (i.e., over 2,000 individuals) gambling screening. In addition, the proposed research involves a novel collaboration with an industry partner to examine a new digital protocol for gambling screening and intervention. The findings will provide new information about the efficacy of online mass screening for gambling-related problems.

Study Aims:

1. Co-develop with the Hoosier Lottery a campaign to promote a new digital protocol for gambling screening and intervention study timed to coincide with GDSD 2024 promotion;
2. Use a longitudinal sample of greater-Indiana gamblers to evaluate differences in GDSD reach (i.e., numbers of individuals screened), receptiveness (i.e., post-screening ratings of clarity, informativeness, relevance and helpfulness), and responsivity (i.e., changes in post-screening reports of gambling behavior and safer play intentions and behaviors) for lottery-recruited and platform-recruited (i.e., MTurk) screening participants randomized to intervention or control groups, using baseline and 3-month follow-up surveys and purposeful sampling; and,
3. Conduct a moderator analysis to examine whether status as a minoritized group member interacts with recruitment pathway to shape participants' responsivity to the screening/intervention protocol.

Eligibility criteria: Inclusion Criteria:

* To be eligible for this study, participants must (1) be at least 18 years old, (2) have gambled at least monthly during the past 12 months, and (3) reside in Indiana, Kentucky, Michigan, Illinois, or Ohio.

Exclusion Criteria:

* Being from outside of U.S.

Primary outcomes:
measure: Reach
timeFrame: Time 1 (March 12, 2024)
measure: Protocol Feedback.
timeFrame: Time 1 (March 12, 2024)
measure: Gambling Frequency.
timeFrame: Time 1 (March 12, 2024) and Time 2 (June 12, 2024)
measure: Gambling Intentions.
timeFrame: Time 1 (March 12, 2024)
measure: Guidelines Compliance.
timeFrame: Time 1 (March 12, 2024) and Time 2 (June 12, 2024)
measure: Guidelines Intentions.
timeFrame: Time 1 (March 12, 2024)
measure: Safer Gambling Practices.
timeFrame: Time 1 (March 12, 2024) and Time 2 (June 12, 2024)
measure: Safer Gambling Intentions.
timeFrame: Time 1 (March 12, 2024)
measure: Help Seeking Behavior.
timeFrame: Time 1 (March 12, 2024) and Time 2 (June 12, 2024)
measure: Help Seeking Intentions.
timeFrame: Time 1 (March 12, 2024)
measure: Positive Play Scale.
timeFrame: Time 1 (March 12, 2024) and Time 2 (June 12, 2024)
Secondary outcomes:
Other outcomes:
Locations:
Study officials:
affiliation: Cambridge Health Alliance
name: Debi A. LaPlante, PhD
role: PRINCIPAL_INVESTIGATOR
References: