Evaluation of the Gambling Habits of Adolescents and Young Adults Post-COVID-19 and Implementation of a Digital Escape Room Intervention for Preventing Gambling in High School Students

NCT ID: NCT06904794

Last Updated: 2025-09-09

Basic Information

• Recruitment Status: RECRUITING
• Clinical Phase: NA
• Total Enrollment: 240 participants
• Study Classification: INTERVENTIONAL
• Study Start Date: 2025-04-02
• Study Completion Date: 2026-03-31

Brief Summary

Gambling behaviors among adolescents and young adults have been experiencing an upward trend in the last years, possibly because of new habits developed during the COVID-19 lockdown restrictions. Different preventive strategies have been proposed: universal classroom-based interventions have shown promising evidence as preventive tools, but challenges exist in engaging the target audience effectively. Serious games, i.e., those designed with the specific intent to educate, broaden knowledge, and change behaviors, have been tested with positive outcomes. Digital escape rooms constitute a modality of serious game that has shown potential for a variety of educational purposes, but their efficacy for preventing addictive behaviors, as well as their long-term impact, has not been widely studied.

The present project aims at assessing the gambling habits of a sample of 16-25-year-olds in the region of Aragon, Spain, that could be compared to the data gathered before the pandemic started, so not only the prevalence rates can be updated but also potential differences in habits (e.g., preferred gambling alternatives) can be detected. This will undoubtedly help the design of effective preventive measures, such as the GAMBL-OUT digital escape room, a serious game to be implemented in high schools with the aim of increasing knowledge, reducing intentions to gamble, and changing attitudes towards gambling.

Conditions

Mental Health

Study Design

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

Study Groups

GAMBL-OUT escape room

Group Type: EXPERIMENTAL

GAMBL-OUT program

Intervention Type: BEHAVIORAL

The GAMBL-OUT program consists of two sessions: the first one involves a digital escape room to be delivered in the classroom and a series of physical props to be used during the experience. In small groups (4-5 students), participants need to work together to solve different puzzles and riddles, all of them related to the story of young adults who are dealing with problem gambling. By the end of the game, which will have a limited time (50 minutes), each group will have gained access to a different password. The second session will start from here: each group will share their password so the final puzzle can be solved, and the game will conclude with in a group discussion about what was learned (40 minutes).

Wait-list control

Group Type: NO_INTERVENTION

No interventions assigned to this group

Interventions

GAMBL-OUT program

The GAMBL-OUT program consists of two sessions: the first one involves a digital escape room to be delivered in the classroom and a series of physical props to be used during the experience. In small groups (4-5 students), participants need to work together to solve different puzzles and riddles, all of them related to the story of young adults who are dealing with problem gambling. By the end of the game, which will have a limited time (50 minutes), each group will have gained access to a different password. The second session will start from here: each group will share their password so the final puzzle can be solved, and the game will conclude with in a group discussion about what was learned (40 minutes).

Intervention Type: BEHAVIORAL

Eligibility Criteria

Inclusion Criteria

• Only high school students aged between 16 and 18
• Being able to read and understand the Spanish language
• Willingness to participate in the study and sign the written informed consent form

Exclusion Criteria

• Age: <16 years old, or >18 years old

• Minimum Eligible Age: 16 Years
• Maximum Eligible Age: 18 Years
• Eligible Sex: ALL
• Accepts Healthy Volunteers: Yes

Sponsors

Hospital Miguel Servet

OTHER

Sponsor Role: lead

Responsible Party

Javier Garcia Campayo

Principal Investigator

Responsibility Role: PRINCIPAL_INVESTIGATOR

Locations

Department of Psychiatry. Miguel Servet University Hospital

Zaragoza, , Spain

Site Status: RECRUITING

Countries

Spain

Central Contacts

Javier García Campayo

Role: CONTACT

investigaprimaria@gmail.com

976 50 65 78

Facility Contacts

Role: primary

976 50 65 78

References

Barcelo-Soler A, Monreal-Bartolome A, Perez-Aranda A, Campos D, Beltran-Ruiz M, Puebla-Guedea M, Cabrera-Gil I, Garcia-Campayo J, Lopez-Del-Hoyo Y. Evaluation of the gambling habits of Spanish adolescents and young adults post-COVID-19 and implementation of a digital escape room intervention for preventing gambling: study protocol of a cluster-randomized controlled trial (GAMBL-OUT project). BMC Psychol. 2025 Jul 1;13(1):690. doi: 10.1186/s40359-025-03035-x.

Reference Type: DERIVED

PMID: 40598402 (View on PubMed)

Other Identifiers

PI24/364

Identifier Type: -

Identifier Source: org_study_id