High-risk Driving Events
Conditions
Brief summary
The purpose of this study is to find out if a phone app can help the learning-to-drive process among teenagers and novice drivers.
Detailed description
This project will assess the feasibility and preliminary efficacy of an app (BTW) to quantify driving behaviors and promote safe driving in adolescents who are beginning their learner period of licensure. 90 teens and their corresponding parents/guardians will be randomized into one of three study groups. Researchers aim to test the feasibility of the BTW app on acceptance and retention, evaluate the preliminary efficacy of the BTW app with a teen-parent dyad intervention on driving performance after using the BTW app for six months, and investigate the long-term effects of the BTW app intervention on driving performance and safety attitudes among teens.
Interventions
BEHAVIORALBTW app with reward-based feedback
Teen drivers will be notified of their weekly driving performance via a driving safety score with information on the types of high-risk driving behaviors committed as well as progress on maintaining and/or improving weekly safe driving behaviors. Educational materials on different driving situations and scenarios associated with the high-risk driving behaviors (e.g. 90-second videos) will be provided for the driver to review at any point and time. Information on these driving behaviors and the education material will be provided via push notifications from the BTW app. Weekly leader boards will show the driver's driving safety score in comparison to other drivers of the same age. Consistently high driver safety scores in certain driving skill areas (e.g., cornering) and a total overall score above 70% of other users on that skill or total score will unlock gamification-based rewards (e.g., driving safety badges, driving safety score leader board, group challenges with winners).
BEHAVIORALBTW app with situational supervised driving practice
Teen drivers will be provided bi-weekly push-notifications from the BTW app notifying them of situational supervised driving practice activities that are to be completed during the assigned week. There are 12 situational supervised driving activities and six skill-building driving activities (Table 1). Skill-building sessions are assigned for off weeks during the first half of the six months (weeks 2-12), allowing for skills to be further developed when the situations are encountered for a second time (weeks 15-23). Parents will be prompted to directly log situational supervised and skill-building driving activities in the app after the session within the BTW app to obtain the module completion date and duration time.
BEHAVIORALSham BTW app
Teens will be provided links to passive education materials and information on car maintenance every week. They will not be given feedback on their driving performances.
Sponsors
Motao Zhu
Centers for Disease Control and Prevention
Study design
Allocation
RANDOMIZED
Intervention model
PARALLEL
Primary purpose
OTHER
Masking
NONE
Eligibility
Sex/Gender
ALL
Age
15 Years to 17 Years
Healthy volunteers
Yes
Inclusion criteria
* Teen participants must be between the ages of 15.5-17 years old at the time of enrollment * Participants must have one parent and/or legal guardian who agrees to participate in the study. * Participants' parents must possess car insurance with at least state-minimum coverage. * Participants must be willing to fulfill the minimum requirements of the Ohio GDL system. * Driver must complete a driver education class at a licensed driver training school with 24 hours of classroom or online instruction and 8 hours of driving time; driver must complete 50 hours of driving with at least 10 hours of night driving; driver must hold the permit for at least 6 months. * Participants must have a functioning smartphone and active smartphone account compatible for the BTW app. * To prevent any interference from another driving-related study, participants must agree not to enroll in other driving-related research/driving performance app during the study period. * Participants must be willing to be randomized and comply with study requirements. * Participants must speak and read English. * Participants must be a US citizen or have permanent resident status.
Exclusion criteria
\- Drivers younger than 15.5 will be excluded because Ohio does not issue a temporary instruction driving permit identification card (i.e., learner's driving permit) starting the GDL process until age 15.5.
Design outcomes
Primary
| Measure | Time frame | Description |
|---|---|---|
| High-risk driving events | Baseline to 6 months post randomization | Number of high-risk driving events (harsh breaking, accelerating, and cornering events) per 1,000 miles driven. Higher numbers signify more high-risk driving events. |
Secondary
| Measure | Time frame | Description |
|---|---|---|
| Speeding and near-crash events | Baseline to 6 months post randomization | Instances of speeding and number of near crashes and crashes per 1,000 miles driven. Higher numbers signify more near-crash events. |
Countries
United States
Contacts
PRINCIPAL_INVESTIGATORMotao Zhu, MD, MS, PhD
Nationwide Children's Hospital
Outcome results
None listed