NCT03496129

An Interactive Text-Message Based Brief Intervention to Reduce Substance-Impaired Driving Among College Students

Completed NA Results posted Last updated 11 August 2025

What this trial tests

NA trial testing Personalized feedback in Alcohol-Impaired Driving in 105 participants. Completed in 30 April 2021.

Timeline

22 September 2018

Primary endpoint
30 April 2021

30 April 2021

Quick facts

Lead sponsor	Western Kentucky University
Phase	NA
Status	Completed
Study type	INTERVENTIONAL
Allocation	randomized
Design	parallel
Masking	none
Primary purpose	treatment
Enrollment	105
Start date	22 September 2018
Primary completion	30 April 2021
Estimated completion	30 April 2021
Sites	1 location across United States

Drugs / interventions tested

• Personalized feedback
• Personalized feedback and text messages
• Information Only

Conditions studied

• Alcohol-Impaired Driving — all drugs for Alcohol-Impaired Driving →

Sponsor

Western Kentucky University

Who can join

18 and older, any sex, with Alcohol-Impaired Driving. Patients with the condition only — healthy volunteers not accepted.

Results — posted to ClinicalTrials.gov

Per-arm endpoint measurements with 95% confidence intervals where reported. Source: trial results section.

Change in Number of Times Driving After Using Substances Primary · 3 months

Participants will be asked to report the number of times they have driven within two hours of drinking alcohol or using other substances.

Group	Value	95% CI
Personalized Feedback	22.43	± 21.39
Personalized Feedback and Text Messages	26.50	± 26.55
Information Only	26.00	± 25.46

Sponsor's own description

Substance-Impaired Driving among college students remains a significant public health concern and may be the single riskiest substance-related outcome among young adults. Brief Interventions (BIs) have been shown to reduce alcohol-impaired driving among college students, but are not often implemented - despite their demonstrated efficacy - because it is not economically feasible for universities to hire and train staff to deliver in-person BIs to all college substance users. Very few college students seek out substance prevention or treatment services available on campus or in the surrounding community. Innovative ways of delivering BIs to this at-risk population in a manner that is both effective and economically feasible have to be developed. The present study will be the first to examine whether a text-messaging-based substance-impaired driving BI significantly decreases substance-impaired driving among colleges substance users compared to an informational control. Participants will be 150 college students who endorse driving after substance use (alcohol, drugs, and/or combined alcohol/drugs) at least twice in the past 3 months. After completing baseline measures, participants will be randomly assigned to receive either: a) substance use information, b) a substance-impaired driving personalized feedback intervention, or c) a substance-impaired driving personalized feedback intervention plus interactive text messages. Participants will complete outcome measures 3, 6, and 12 months post-intervention. Repeated measures mixed modeling analyses will be used to determine whether the intervention significantly reduces substance-impaired driving over time. The project has two specific aims: 1) to evaluate a text based substance-impaired driving intervention in a randomized clinical trial, and 2) to determine whether the use of interactive text-messages sustains intervention effects over time. This study is innovative because it utilizes cutting-edge technology to deliver the entire intervention, enabling the study to reach a large number of students in a short time period at a low cost. The study is significant because it will contribute substantially to the substance-impaired driving literature by identifying an intervention that can decrease substance-impaired driving among this high-risk population. Additionally, this study will add to the newly emerging technology-based intervention literature.

Publications & conference data

3 peer-reviewed publications reference this trial (live from Europe PMC):

1. A randomized pilot trial of a mobile phone-based brief intervention with personalized feedback and interactive text messaging to reduce driving after cannabis use and riding with a cannabis impaired driver.
   Teeters JB, Armstrong NM, King SA, Hubbard SM. · · 2022 · cited 10× · PMID 36007434 · DOI 10.1016/j.jsat.2022.108867
2. A mobile phone-based brief intervention with personalized feedback and interactive text messaging is associated with changes in driving after cannabis use cognitions in a proof-of-concept pilot trial.
   Teeters JB, King SA, Hubbard SM. · · 2021 · cited 7× · PMID 34043401 · DOI 10.1037/pha0000442
3. Are Changes in Negative Cannabis Expectancies, Peer Approval, and Perceptions of Dangerousness of Driving After Cannabis Use Associated with Changes in Instances of Driving After Cannabis Use Following a Mobile-Phone Based Intervention?
   Elder SN, Teeters JB. · · 2025 · PMID 39968480 · DOI 10.26828/cannabis/2025/000287