Brief Behavioural Economic Intervention for Smoking Cessation

Tobacco Smoking Clinical Trial

— QTW2024  

Official title:

Building Capacity and Promoting Smoking Cessation in the Community Via "Quit to Win" Contest 2024: a Randomised Controlled Trial of a Brief Behavioural Economic Intervention

Clinical Trial Details — Status: Not yet recruiting

Administrative data

• NCT number: NCT06451081
• Other study ID #: QTW2024
• Status: Not yet recruiting
• Phase: N/A
• Start date: June 15, 2024
• Est. completion date: May 31, 2025

Study information

• Verified date: June 2024
• Source: The University of Hong Kong
• Contact: Tzu Tsun Luk, PhD, RN
• Phone: 39177574
• Email: luktt[@]connect.hku.hk
• Is FDA regulated: No
• Study type: Interventional

Clinical Trial Summary

The goal of this clinical trial is to test the effectiveness of brief behavioural economic intervention in promoting smoking cessation among smokers in the community.

Description:

Smoking cessation services are free and effective but underused in Hong Kong. Active referral to smoking cessation services has consistently been found effective in promoting service use and successful quitting as a stand-alone strategy or when combined with other interventions. Participants who received active referral are introduced about the cessation services in Hong Kong and offered connection to the services of their choices. Contacts of participants who agreed to be referred are transferred to the selected cessation providers, who will subsequently contact the participants for further treatment.

The current active referral intervention uses an opt-in approach, where participants are required to actively choose to be connected to the services. By leveraging behavioural economic principles, a simple yet promising strategy to strengthen the active referral intervention is to utilize an "opt-out" approach, where participants are automatically referred to the service unless they actively decline the referral. By making referral to smoking cessation services as the default choice, the investigators aim to increase the uptake of these services and thus improve smoking cessation outcomes. Additionally, mobile messaging informed by behavioural economics principles can serve as nudges to prompt smokers to initiate quitting and utilise cessation services.

The clinical trial aims to test the effectiveness of opt-out referral, with or without behavioural economic-based mobile messaging, compared to opt-in referral, in promoting smoking cessation. The trial will be nested within the 15th "Quit to Win" Smoke-free Community Campaign organised by the Hong Kong Council on Smoking and Health.

Recruitment information / eligibility

• Status: Not yet recruiting
• Enrollment: 1017
• Est. completion date: May 31, 2025
• Est. primary completion date: April 30, 2025
• Accepts healthy volunteers: Accepts Healthy Volunteers
• Gender: All
• Age group: 18 Years and older

Eligibility

Inclusion Criteria:

1. Hong Kong residents aged 18 years or above

2. Smoke cigarette or heated tobacco product or e-cigarette daily in the past 3 months

3. Exhaled carbon monoxide level =4 parts per million or a positive salivary cotinine test

4. Able to communicate in and read Chinese

5. Own a smartphone with a mobile instant messaging app installed

Exclusion Criteria:

• Participating in another smoking cessation programme or using any smoking cessation drug or nicotine replacement therapy

Related Conditions & MeSH terms

• Tobacco Smoking

Intervention

Behavioral:
• Brief cessation advice
Participants will receive brief cessation advice following the AWARD (ask, warn, advise, refer, do-it-again) model: A: Ask about the tobacco use status; W: Warn about the hazards of tobacco use; A: Advise the smokers to quit; R: Refer the smokers to cessation services; D: Do-it-again
• Opt-out active referral
Participants will be automatically referred to a smoking cessation service upon joining the trial, unless they choose to opt out. Contacts of participants will be delivered to a service provider of their choice or based on their living district and preferred treatment modality
• Behavioral economic mobile messaging
Participants will receive behavioural economics-informed messages via mobile instant messaging for 3 months
• Opt-in active referral
Participants will be offered a referral to a smoking cessation service. Contacts of participants who opt-in will be delivered to a service provider of their choice

Locations

Country	Name	City	State
Hong Kong	Community sites	Hong Kong

Sponsors (2)

Lead Sponsor	Collaborator
The University of Hong Kong	Hong Kong Council on Smoking and Health

Country where clinical trial is conducted

Hong Kong, 

References & Publications (1)

Wang MP, Suen YN, Li WH, Lam CO, Wu SY, Kwong AC, Lai VW, Chan SS, Lam TH. Intervention With Brief Cessation Advice Plus Active Referral for Proactively Recruited Community Smokers: A Pragmatic Cluster Randomized Clinical Trial. JAMA Intern Med. 2017 Dec 1;177(12):1790-1797. doi: 10.1001/jamainternmed.2017.5793. — View Citation

Outcome

Type	Measure	Description	Time frame	Safety issue
Other	Self-reported reduction of tobacco consumption	Smoking reduction by at least half of the baseline daily number of cigarettes	3 months after randomisation
Other	Self-reported reduction of tobacco consumption	Smoking reduction by at least half of the baseline daily number of cigarettes	6 months after randomisation
Primary	Biochemically validated tobacco abstinence	Verified by an exhaled carbon monoxide level of <4 parts per million and a negative salivary cotinine test	6 months after randomisation
Secondary	Biochemically validated tobacco abstinence	Verified by an exhaled carbon monoxide level of <4 parts per million and a negative salivary cotinine test	3 months after randomisation
Secondary	Self-reported 7-day point-prevalence tobacco abstinence	Tobacco abstinence in the past 7 days	3 months after randomisation
Secondary	Self-reported 7-day point-prevalence tobacco abstinence	Tobacco abstinence in the past 7 days	6 months after randomisation
Secondary	Self-reported 24-hour quit attempt	Tobacco abstinence for at least 24 hours	3 months after randomisation
Secondary	Self-reported 24-hour quit attempt	Tobacco abstinence for at least 24 hours	6 months after randomisation
Secondary	Self-reported use of smoking cessation service	Use of any smoking cessation service during the follow-up period	3 months after randomisation
Secondary	Self-reported use of smoking cessation service	Use of any smoking cessation service during the follow-up period	6 months after randomisation