Adaptive Mobile Interventions to Reduce Cancer Risk Behaviors

🩺 Protocol Summary

Tobacco use remains the leading cause of preventable death, causing over 400,000 annual deaths in the United States alone. Smartphone-based interventions, particularly those leveraging real-time adaptive messaging, represent a promising yet underutilized approach to delivering personalized tobacco and cannabis treatment. The investigator's ongoing NCI funded micro-randomized trial (MRT; R01 CA246590) has shown initial feasibility in reducing smoking urges through situationally tailored cognitive-behavioral therapy (CBT) and mindfulness-based acceptance and commitment-based therapy (ACT) messages triggered by real-time contextual data (e.g., geolocation, momentary stress). To advance from a static MRT framework to a dynamic, data-driven just-in-time adaptive intervention (JITAI), this project aims to develop, test, and refine a reinforcement learning (RL) algorithm that can continuously adapt to user needs in real-time, enhancing treatment outcomes for various tobacco and cannabis products. To ensure optimal usability and engagement, the investigators will conduct user-centered testing with the developed RL-based intervention delivery in one cohort (N=7) over 45 days. This will include usability assessment via the System Usability Scale, analysis of app interaction metrics, and semi-structured interviews to gather feedback for refining message content, timing, and design.

Primary Research Facility: Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health (Baltimore, Maryland)

Answer all 3 basic criteria below to see your preliminary screening result:

📍 Primary Site Map

Site: Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health — Baltimore, Maryland

💰 Clinical Trial Costs & Insurance Coverage

Coverage for clinical trial participation varies depending on your health insurance policy, state legislation, and whether specific procedures are investigational research or routine medical care. Under federal law (Affordable Care Act § 2709), health insurers generally cannot drop coverage or refuse to pay for routine patient care costs incurred in approved clinical trials.

💡 Always ask the study coordinator for the trial's official Informed Consent Form, which outlines all sponsor-funded research items versus procedures billed to your insurance.