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Aversive Therapy for Smoking Cessation

Acceptability and Feasibility of Self Administered Aversive Therapy for Smoking Cessation

Status
Completed
Phases
NA
Study type
Interventional
Source
ClinicalTrials.gov
Registry ID
NCT03450148
Enrollment
48
Registered
2018-03-01
Start date
2018-07-20
Completion date
2021-05-01
Last updated
2021-07-15

For informational purposes only — not medical advice. Sourced from public registries and may not reflect the latest updates. Terms

Conditions

Smoking Cessation

Keywords

aversive therapy

Brief summary

The purpose of this research study is to test a new way to help people quit smoking. The PI will test acceptability and feasibility of a new device called Pavlok wearable wrist band. Participants will be smokers who are highly motivated to quit. Participants will be randomized into intervention and control groups.

Detailed description

The participants will be evaluated after 1 week and assessed for their ongoing participation and commitment to the study. Those still interested and eligible will be randomized to two groups described below and will continue the study for 3 more weeks. There will be follow up surveys at various time points while wearing the wristband (1 week, 2 week, 3 weeks) and a final survey at T=3 months. The intervention group will continue to wear the wristband and the wristband will deliver a slight electric stimulus every time it is pressed. The placebo group will wear continue to press the button on the wristband but it will not give a slight electric stimulus when pressed. Both groups will wear the device for a total of 4 weeks.

Interventions

OTHERPavlok wristband with electric stimulus

it is a device for various behavior modifications in the form of wristband which participants will wear on the wrist. Device has maximum voltage of 0-500 volts, delivers a electric stimulus for a maximum of 1 sec and average duration of 0.2 secs

OTHERPavlok wristband without electric stimulus

it is a device for various behavior modifications in the form of wristband which participants will wear on the wrist. Participants will not receive any electric stimulus since this feature will be turned off.

Sponsors

University of Alabama at Birmingham
Lead SponsorOTHER

Study design

Allocation
RANDOMIZED
Intervention model
PARALLEL
Primary purpose
OTHER
Masking
NONE

Eligibility

Sex/Gender
ALL
Age
19 Years to 99 Years
Healthy volunteers
No

Inclusion criteria

* Current smoker (defined by the Center for Disease Control as an adult who has smoked 100 cigarettes in his or her lifetime and who currently smokes cigarettes . This will be determined based on participant baseline survey. * Interested in quitting (contemplation stage and beyond, as defined by serious consideration of quitting smoking in the next 30 days * Subject is equal to or greater than 19 years old * Considers themselves tech savvy (based on self reported 5 point likert scale) * Must have a smart phone with blue tooth capabilities * Willing to receive aversive therapy if assigned to this group.

Exclusion criteria

* Anyone with a diagnosed arrhythmia or with a pacemaker or with a phobia or history of psychosis. * Non-English speaking caregivers * Lives outside of contiguous United States

Design outcomes

Primary

MeasureTime frameDescription
Participants satisfaction: short customized surveyT=0 to 3 monthsParticipants' acceptability/satisfaction will be assessed using a short customized survey. The survey will be a Likert scale and will include 2 questions with options ranging from satisfied to dissatisfied (with 1 indicating satisfaction and 5 indicating dissatisfaction). One other question is a likert scale with options ranging from 1-3 with 1 indicating the device was very useful and 3 indicating the device was not at all useful. A higher score indicates a worse outcome (less satisfaction with the device). Each question will be evaluated individually.
Participants acceptability: short customized surveyT=0 to 3 monthsParticipants' acceptability/satisfaction will be assessed using a short customized survey. The survey will include 8 questions with options ranging from strongly agree to strongly disagree for five questions and ranging from satisfaction to dissatisfaction for the remainder 3 questions. Each question will be evaluated individually.
Evaluate the dropout among participantsT=0 to 3 monthsNumber of participants dropped out from time of randomization. Dropout is defined as missing two follow up assessments.
Enrollment percentage of eligible participantsBaseline to T=0PI will evaluate the percentage of participants that were enrolled after the 1 week run in period.
Percentage of time wristband worn by participantsT=0 to one weekPI will evaluate the percentage of time the wristband is worn. Instructions will be given to wear the wristband all of the waking hours.

Secondary

MeasureTime frameDescription
Percentage of participants that made a quit attemptFrom T=0 to one weekPI will evaluate the percentage of participants that made a quit attempt as defined by absence of smoking for more than 24 hours in the previous seven days. This will be assessed through the follow up survey given at various intervals.
Average Degree of smoking reductionFrom baseline to 3 monthsPI will evaluate the average percentage of smoking reduction. This will be quantified by the average number of cigarettes smoked at baseline compared to the average number of cigarettes smoked at 3 months. This will be assessed via the Follow survey.
Percentage of participants who had cessation of smoking.T=0 to T= 3 weeksP will evaluate the percentage of participants who had cessation of smoking, as defined by the absence of smoking in the previous 30 days. This will be evaluated by the Three month Questionnaire
Before and after smoking self-efficacy scoreBaseline to 3 monthsThe PI will evaluate the self-efficacy of the participant as evaluated by the Baseline Smoking self-efficacy scale Short form. There are 9 questions which will assess the confidence of the participant to not smoke.The investigators will use Likert scale for each question which assesses the participants confidence to not smoke in various circumstances. The answers range from 1 to 5 with 1 indicating not at all confident and 5 indicating extremely confident. The overall score for each participant will be calculated by sum of scores from all items. This score for individual subscales will be calculated by sum item scores so that the total score will range from 9 to 45, with a lower score indicating a worse outcome i.e. less confidence to not smoke).
Stage of changeFrom baseline until 3 monthsThe investigators will use Likert scale for each question to evaluate the motivation to change. A score of 1 indicates that the participant has no intention to quit smoking and the score of 5 indicates that the participant is highly motivated. Evaluate the initial stage of change of the participant as judged by Screening Questionnaire, Stage of Change. There is only 1 question.

Countries

United States

Outcome results

None listed

Source: ClinicalTrials.gov · Data processed: Feb 4, 2026