Exploring a Lottery-promoted Gambling Disorder Screening Day Intervention

NCT ID: NCT06235333

Last Updated: 2024-01-31

Basic Information

• Recruitment Status: NOT_YET_RECRUITING
• Clinical Phase: NA
• Total Enrollment: 4500 participants
• Study Classification: INTERVENTIONAL
• Study Start Date: 2024-03-12
• Study Completion Date: 2024-12-31

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.

Conditions

Gambling Problem

Keywords

brief screening

Study Design

• Allocation Method: RANDOMIZED
• Intervention Model: PARALLEL
• Primary Study Purpose: SCREENING
• Blinding Strategy: SINGLE

Study Groups

Screening Intervention

Individuals will take part in a branching problem/responsible gambling information sharing experience before completing a multi-item brief gambling screen and receiving tailored feedback about their risk for gambling-related problems, and including problem/responsible gambling resources for their state of residence and national resources.

Group Type: EXPERIMENTAL

Gambling Disorder Screening Day screener

Intervention Type: BEHAVIORAL

See descriptions

Informational Control

Individuals will take part in a limited problem/responsible gambling information sharing experience.

Group Type: ACTIVE_COMPARATOR

Gambling Disorder Screening Day information sheet

Intervention Type: BEHAVIORAL

See descriptions

Interventions

Gambling Disorder Screening Day screener

See descriptions

Intervention Type: BEHAVIORAL

Gambling Disorder Screening Day information sheet

See descriptions

Intervention Type: BEHAVIORAL

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.

• Minimum Eligible Age: 18 Years
• Maximum Eligible Age: 100 Years
• Eligible Sex: ALL
• Accepts Healthy Volunteers: Yes

Sponsors

International Center for Responsible Gaming

UNKNOWN

Sponsor Role: collaborator

Hoosier Lottery, Indiana

UNKNOWN

Sponsor Role: collaborator

Cambridge Health Alliance

OTHER

Sponsor Role: lead

Responsible Party

Debi LaPlante

Director, Division on Addiction

Responsibility Role: PRINCIPAL_INVESTIGATOR

Principal Investigators

Debi A. LaPlante, PhD

Role: PRINCIPAL_INVESTIGATOR

Cambridge Health Alliance

Central Contacts

Debi A LaPlante, PhD

Role: CONTACT

Phone: 617-575-5677

Email: dlaplante@cha.harvard.edu

Heather M Gray, PhD

Role: CONTACT

Phone: 617-575-5677

Email: hgray@cha.harvard.edu

Other Identifiers

13656

Identifier Type: -

Identifier Source: org_study_id