TY  - JOUR
AU  - Linden-Carmichael, Ashley
AU  - Stull, Samuel W
AU  - Wang, Danny
AU  - Bhandari, Sandesh
AU  - Lanza, Stephanie T
PY  - 2024
DA  - 2024/12/5
TI  - Impact of Providing a Personalized Data Dashboard on Ecological Momentary Assessment Compliance Among College Students Who Use Substances: Pilot Microrandomized Trial
JO  - JMIR Form Res
SP  - e60193
VL  - 8
KW  - ecological momentary assessment
KW  - data dashboard
KW  - study compliance
KW  - substance use
KW  - substance use behavior
KW  - college student
KW  - alcohol
KW  - cannabis
KW  - cannabis use
KW  - personalized data dashboard
KW  - EMA protocol
KW  - EMA
KW  - health behaviors
KW  - survey
KW  - compliance
KW  - self-reported
AB  - Background: The landscape of substance use behavior among young adults has observed rapid changes over time. Intensive longitudinal designs are ideal for examining and intervening in substance use behavior in real time but rely on high participant compliance in the study protocol, representing a significant challenge for researchers. Objective: This study aimed to evaluate the effect of including a personalized data dashboard (DD) in a text-based survey prompt on study compliance outcomes among college students participating in a 21-day ecological momentary assessment (EMA) study. Methods: Participants (N=91; 61/91, 67% female and 84/91, 92% White) were college students who engaged in recent alcohol and cannabis use. Participants were randomized to either complete a 21-day EMA protocol with 4 prompts/d (EMA Group) or complete the same EMA protocol with 1 personalized message and a DD indicating multiple metrics of progress in the study, delivered at 1 randomly selected prompt/d (EMA+DD Group) via a microrandomized design. Study compliance, completion time, self-reported protocol experiences, and qualitative responses were assessed for both groups. Results: Levels of compliance were similar across groups. Participants in the EMA+DD Group had overall faster completion times, with significant week-level differences in weeks 2 and 3 of the study (P=.047 and P=.03, respectively). Although nonsignificant, small-to-medium effect sizes were observed when comparing the groups in terms of compensation level (P=.08; Cohen w=0.19) and perceived burden (P=.09; Cohen d=-0.36). Qualitative findings revealed that EMA+DD participants perceived that seeing their progress facilitated engagement. Within the EMA+DD Group, providing a DD at the moment level did not significantly impact participants’ likelihood of completing the EMA or completion time at that particular prompt (all P>.05), with the exception of the first prompt of the day (P=.01 and P<.001). Conclusions: Providing a DD may be useful to increase engagement, particularly for researchers aiming to assess health behaviors shortly after a survey prompt is deployed to participants’ mobile devices. International Registered Report Identifier (IRRID): RR2-10.2196/57664 
SN  - 2561-326X
UR  - https://formative.jmir.org/2024/1/e60193
UR  - https://doi.org/10.2196/60193
DO  - 10.2196/60193
ID  - info:doi/10.2196/60193
ER  -