NCT03585231

Pilot Trial of the First Conversational Agent for Smoking Cessation (QuitBot)

Say "Hello" To Your Digital Coach: Development and Pilot Trial of the First Conversational Agent for Smoking Cessation

• Status: Completed
• Phase: N/A
• Study type: Interventional
• Enrollment: 404 (actual)
• Sponsor: Fred Hutchinson Cancer Center · Academic / Other
• Sex: All
• Age: 18 Years
• Healthy volunteers: Accepted

Summary

Conversational agents (CAs) are computer-powered digital coaches designed to form long-term social-emotional connections with users through conversations. We have developed a CA for cigarette smoking cessation. In a pilot randomized trial (N = 415), we will compare the experimental messaging program (n = 155) with the standard of care national government smoking cessation messaging program (n = 157), and then we will compare immediate (n=51) versus delayed (n=51) access to the the experimental messaging program, to assess 12-week usability, receptivity, and preliminary cessation results in adults in western Washington State and nationally across the US who want to quit smoking.

Detailed description

Cigarette smoking is the most preventable cause of cancer in the US, accounting for one-third of all cancer deaths. Within the Fred Hutchinson Center's western Washington State 13-county catchment area, there are enormous disparities in adult cigarette smoking rates. Our recently completed WebQuit website RCT for smoking cessation had low engagement and no personalization to users' needs. Fortunately, a potentially game-changing solution to the problems of engagement and lack of personalization provide a new direction for my research. Advances in machine learning, natural language processing, and cloud computing are making it possible to create and widely disseminate conversational agents (CAs), which are computer-powered digital coaches designed to form long-term social-emotional connections with users through conversations. We have developed a CA for cigarette smoking cessation. In a pilot randomized trial (N = 415), we will compare the experimental messaging program with the standard of care national government smoking cessation messaging program, and then we will compare immediate versus delayed access to the the experimental messaging program. Twelve-week usability, receptivity, and preliminary cessation results will provide critical and timely pilot data.

Conditions

• Smoking Cessation

Interventions

Type	Name	Description
BEHAVIORAL	Immediate access to novel messaging program intervention	The experimental arm includes an immediate intervention using a novel messaging program for smoking cessation.
BEHAVIORAL	Immediate access to standard of care messaging program intervention	The immediate control intervention uses a standard of care messaging program for smoking cessation.
BEHAVIORAL	Delayed access to novel novel messaging program intervention	The delayed control intervention uses the novel messaging program for smoking cessation.

Timeline

• Start date: 2018-09-17
• Primary completion: 2019-12-06
• Completion: 2020-12-02
• First posted: 2018-07-12
• Last updated: 2020-12-08

Locations

1 site across 1 country: United States