Testing the ETM: Examination and Comparison of Different Methods

Testing the Experimental Tobacco Marketplace: Examination and Comparison of Different Methods

This study will experimentally assess the comparability of in-lab and remote procedures with hypothetical and real ETM purchase outcomes.

Study Overview

• Status: Completed
• Conditions: Cigarette Smoking
• Intervention / Treatment: Drug: Reat ETM; Drug: Hypothetical ETM

Detailed Description

In a between-group within-subject repeated measures design, participants will be randomly assigned to one of two procedures (in-lab or remote; between-group) and complete two conditions (real and hypothetical; within-subject), which include six trials assessing increasing cigarette prices.

• Study Type: Interventional
• Enrollment (Actual): 87
• Phase: Early Phase 1

Contacts and Locations

Study Locations

• United States
  • Virginia
    • Roanoke, Virginia, United States, 24016
      • Fralin Biomedical Research Institute

Participation Criteria

Eligibility Criteria

• Ages Eligible for Study: Adult; Older Adult
• Accepts Healthy Volunteers: No

Description

Inclusion Criteria:

• Provide informed consent
• Be at least 21 years of age or older
• Stable tobacco use patterns for at least three months
• Smoke at least 5 cigarettes daily
• Use other tobacco products less than weekly
• Have access to a computer and internet

Exclusion Criteria:

• report uncontrolled physical or mental health conditions (e.g., uncontrolled diabetes, high blood pressure, major depressive disorder, etc.),
• use of smoking cessation medications (e.g., nicotine replacement, bupropion, varenicline) in the past 30 days,
• report concrete, immediate plans to alter/quit using their usual tobacco products in the next 30 days,
• be pregnant or lactating

Study Plan

How is the study designed?

Design Details

• Primary Purpose: Basic Science
• Allocation: Randomized
• Interventional Model: Crossover Assignment
• Masking: None (Open Label)

Number of Arms

2

Arms and Interventions

Participant Group / Arm	Intervention / Treatment
Experimental: In-lab procedures; Exclusive cigarette smokers will be recruited and will experience all study procedures in the laboratory.	Drug: Reat ETM; Exclusive cigarette smokers will be recruited and will be exposed to the real ETM condition in which tobacco purchases are real and they receive products from one randomly selected trial.; Drug: Hypothetical ETM; Exclusive cigarette smokers will be recruited and will be exposed to the hypothetical ETM condition in which tobacco purchases are hypothetical and they don't receive any products.
Experimental: Remote procedures; Exclusive cigarette smokers will be recruited and will experience all study procedures remotely.	Drug: Reat ETM; Exclusive cigarette smokers will be recruited and will be exposed to the real ETM condition in which tobacco purchases are real and they receive products from one randomly selected trial.; Drug: Hypothetical ETM; Exclusive cigarette smokers will be recruited and will be exposed to the hypothetical ETM condition in which tobacco purchases are hypothetical and they don't receive any products.

What is the study measuring?

Primary Outcome Measures

Outcome Measure	Measure Description	Time Frame
Cigarette demand	Participants will complete purchasing trials in an Experimental Tobacco Marketplace (ETM) with cigarettes increasing in price. Other product prices in the ETM will remain constant. To obtain dependent measures of demand, participants' purchasing of the price-manipulated commodity in the ETM task will be fit to a modified exponential equation to quantify the relationship between the price of each commodity and purchasing: Q=Q0*10k(exp(-αQ0C)-1) where Q is purchasing of the commodity, C is the price, Q0 is the derived initial purchasing without cost constraints (demand intensity), k is the span of the function in logarithmic units, and α is the demand elasticity.	1 day
Nicotine/tobacco products substitution	Participants will complete purchasing trials in an Experimental Tobacco Marketplace (ETM) with cigarettes increasing in price. Other product prices in the ETM will remain constant. To obtain estimates of substitution of price-constant products in the different ETM conditions, the investigators will use ordinary least squares regression to model the relationship of the price-manipulated product to predict total quantity purchased of the price-constant product.	1 day

Collaborators and Investigators

• Sponsor: Virginia Polytechnic Institute and State University
• Investigators: Principal Investigator: Jeffrey Stein, Ph.D., Fralin Biomedical Research Institute at VTC

Study record dates

Study Major Dates

• Study Start (Actual): December 2, 2024
• Primary Completion (Actual): August 14, 2025
• Study Completion (Actual): August 15, 2025

Study Registration Dates

• First Submitted: July 6, 2023
• First Submitted That Met QC Criteria: July 6, 2023
• First Posted (Actual): July 14, 2023

Study Record Updates

• Last Update Posted (Actual): June 5, 2026
• Last Update Submitted That Met QC Criteria: June 3, 2026
• Last Verified: June 1, 2026

More Information

Terms related to this study

• Additional Relevant MeSH Terms: Behavior; Smoking; Tobacco Smoking; Tobacco Use; Cigarette Smoking
• Other Study ID Numbers: IRB #24-837

Plan for Individual participant data (IPD)

• Plan to Share Individual Participant Data (IPD)?: NO
• IPD Plan Description: The study team will share de-identified data upon request.

Drug and device information, study documents

• Studies a U.S. FDA-regulated drug product: Yes
• Studies a U.S. FDA-regulated device product: No
• product manufactured in and exported from the U.S.: No