Trial reportJMIR mHealth and uHealth2024
Mobile App Intervention to Reduce Substance Use, Gambling, and Digital Media Use in Vocational School Students: Exploratory Analysis of the Intervention Arm of a Randomized Controlled Trial.
Trial report in JMIR mHealth and uHealth, 2024. The graph could read no effect estimate from its abstract, so it casts no vote on the map. Cited by 4 papers.
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Who cites it
4 citing papers in PubMed.
- Prevention Needs and Target Behavior Preferences in an App-Based Addiction Prevention Program for German Vocational School Students: Cluster Randomized Controlled Trial.JMIR mHealth and uHealth · 2025Trial
- Feasibility of delivering a digital multiple health behaviour intervention via a home-telemonitoring system: engagement, outcomes, and user experiences.BMC research notes · 2026Article
- Mechanisms and durability of residential treatment for co-occurring gambling and substance use disorders: a mixed-methods eight-year follow-up study.Frontiers in psychiatry · 2026Article
- Mitigating Gambling-Related Harms in Children and Young People: A Scoping Review of Interventions.Journal of gambling studies · 2025Article
Corrections and comments
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Authors and funding
9 authors.
Funding
No grant is acknowledged in the PubMed record.
Abstract
backgroundDuring adolescence, substance use and digital media exposure usually peak and can become major health risks. Prevention activities are mainly implemented in the regular school setting, and youth outside this system are not reached. A mobile app ("Meine Zeit ohne") has been developed specifically for vocational students and encourages participants to voluntarily reduce or abstain from a self-chosen addictive behavior including the use of a substance, gambling, or a media-related habit such as gaming or social media use for 2 weeks. Results from a randomized study indicate a significant impact on health-promoting behavior change after using the app. This exploratory study focuses on the intervention arm of this study, focusing on acceptance and differential effectiveness.
objectiveThe aims of this study were (1) to examine the characteristics of participants who used the app, (2) to explore the effectiveness of the mobile intervention depending on how the app was used and depending on participants' characteristics, and (3) to study how variations in app use were related to participants' baseline characteristics.
methodsLog data from study participants in the intervention group were analyzed including the frequency of app use (in days), selection of a specific challenge, and personal relevance (ie, the user was above a predefined risk score for a certain addictive behavior) of challenge selection ("congruent use": eg, a smoker selected a challenge related to reducing or quitting smoking). Dichotomous outcomes (change vs no change) referred to past-month substance use, gambling, and media-related behaviors. The relationship between these variables was analyzed using binary, multilevel, mixed-effects logistic regression models.
resultsThe intervention group consisted of 2367 vocational students, and 1458 (61.6%; mean age 19.0, SD 3.5 years; 830/1458, 56.9% male) of them provided full data. Of these 1458 students, 894 (61.3%) started a challenge and could be included in the analysis (mean 18.7, SD 3.5 years; 363/894, 40.6% female). Of these 894 students, 466 (52.1%) were considered frequent app users with more than 4 days of active use over the 2-week period. The challenge area most often chosen in the analyzed sample was related to social media use (332/894, 37.1%). A total of 407 (45.5%) of the 894 students selected a challenge in a behavioral domain of personal relevance. The effects of app use on outcomes were higher when the area of individual challenge choice was equal to the area of behavior change, challenge choice was related to a behavior of personal relevance, and the individual risk of engaging in different addictive behaviors was high.
conclusionsThe domain-specific effectiveness of the program was confirmed with no spillover between behavioral domains. Effectiveness appeared to be dependent on app use and users' characteristics.
trial registrationGerman Clinical Trials Register DRKS00023788; https://tinyurl.com/4pzpjkmj. INTERNATIONAL REGISTERED REPORT IDENTIFIER (IRRID): RR2-10.1186/s13063-022-06231-x.
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