Don't Go There: A Geospatial mHealth App for Gambling Disorder

NCT04158037 | Withdrawn

• 1 other identifier: 30494
• Study Type: interventional
• Target: N/A
• Locations: 1 country
• Sites: 1

Brief Summary

The goal of this project is to develop and to test the efficacy of a novel mHealth app for gambling disorder. The app capitalizes on smartphones' global positioning software (GPS) that recognizes a user's location to within 15 feet. Users will receive an alert of this go near a gambling venue. The project will conduct a 12-week pilot randomized clinical trial to test the short-term efficacy of the app with gambling disorder individuals.

Conditions

Gambling Disorder

Keywords

mHealth App

Outcome Measures

Primary Outcomes (2)

• App usage (feasibility)

  Number of days the app is active on a user's smartphone. Days can range from 0 to 84.

  From baseline to post-treatment (12 weeks)

• Patient satisfaction with the gambling app

  Investigator derived patient satisfaction self-report questionnaire. Five items, using a 7-point Likert scale from very dissatisfied (1) to very satisfied (7). Higher scores indicate a better outcome.

  From baseline to post-treatment (12 weeks)

Secondary Outcomes (3)

• Gambling behavior via Timeline Followback (Weinstock, Whelan, & Meyers, 2004)

  From baseline to post-treatment (12 weeks)

• Gambling-related harms (Browne et al., 2018)

  From baseline to post-treatment (12 weeks)

• Quality of Life Inventory (Frisch et al., 1994). A self-reported quality of life measure assessing 17 domains of life for importance and satisfaction.

  From baseline to post-treatment (12 weeks)

Study Arms (2)

mHealth App

EXPERIMENTAL

Participants will receive the gambling disorder mHealth app.

Behavioral: mHealth App

Wait List Control

NO INTERVENTION

Participant will be placed on a wait list for 12 weeks, after which they will be offered the gambling disorder mHealth app.

Interventions

mHealth App BEHAVIORAL

The app uses smartphones' global positioning software (GPS) that recognizes a user's location to within 15 feet. The app will construct a customizable geofence (e.g., 3 miles) around a gambler's favored gambling venue (e.g., casino, gas station). If the individual crosses the fence boundary his or her phone will raise the alarm with a personalized motivational message.

mHealth App

Eligibility Criteria

• Age: 18 Years+
• Sex: all
• Healthy Volunteers: No
• Age Groups: Adult (18-64), Older Adult (65+)

You may qualify if:

• Currently meets DSM-5 criteria for gambling disorder
• At least 4 non-online gambling episodes in past 60 days
• Wagering at least $100 total over past 60 days
• Willingness to accept random assignment
• English speaking
• Android phone user

You may not qualify if:

• Age \<18 years old
• Severely disruptive behavior
• Serious uncontrolled psychiatric behavior that requires acute psychiatric care
• Decline permission to collect zero permission data from smartphone.

Sponsors & Collaborators

• St. Louis University: lead
• National Center for Responsible Gaming: collaborator

Study Sites (1)

Saint Louis University

St Louis, Missouri, 63108, United States

Location

MeSH Terms

Conditions

Gambling

Condition Hierarchy (Ancestors)

Risk-Taking; Behavior; Disruptive, Impulse Control, and Conduct Disorders; Mental Disorders

Study Officials

• Jeremiah Weinstock, PhD

  St. Louis University

  PRINCIPAL INVESTIGATOR

Study Design

• Study Type: interventional
• Phase: not applicable
• Allocation: RANDOMIZED
• Masking: NONE
• Purpose: TREATMENT
• Intervention Model: PARALLEL
• Sponsor Type: OTHER
• Responsible Party: PRINCIPAL INVESTIGATOR
• PI Title: Associate Professor

Study Record Dates

• First Submitted: November 5, 2019
• First Posted: November 8, 2019
• Study Start: July 31, 2024
• Primary Completion: May 31, 2025
• Study Completion: June 1, 2025
• Last Updated: August 27, 2025

Record last verified: 2025-08

Data Sharing

• IPD Sharing: Will not share

Locations

US (1)