Brief Online Personalised Feedback Intervention for Gambling Harm

Pilot Randomised Trial of a Brief Online Personalised Feedback Intervention for the UK Context Designed to Prevent, Reduce, and Address Gambling Harm

Purpose and significance A brief self-directed online personalised feedback intervention was developed for the UK context designed to prevent, reduce, and address gambling harm. The intervention, which also comes in a paper format, comprises of normative feedback and personalised information on the risk of gambling above lower-risk gambling guidelines. The content is based on recent work adapting the Canadian lower-risk gambling guidelines to the UK context. The purpose of this exploratory research is to conduct the first randomised controlled trial of this intervention. Further, given the increased prevalence of online gambling, the project will target this at-risk population.

Rationale This project will generate participant feedback on the intervention important to improve its utility. The project will also produce publishable findings on the intervention's efficacy. This evaluation provides a necessary first step towards the wide-spread implementation of this free-of-charge intervention in the UK.

Methodology First, using methods developed in our previous research, we will rapidly recruit 926 online gambling participants with moderate or problem gambling from an existing online panel of UK residents. These participants will be randomised to receive the self-directed online intervention or assigned to a no intervention control group. Participants will be followed-up up at one- and three-months to provide detailed feedback on their impressions of the intervention (and what further modifications are needed) and to assess the short-term impact of the intervention on gambling frequency and harm.

Potential implications of the proposed research The intervention can be accessed at any time of the day and allow the delivery of help without requiring face-to-face contact. Online interventions also have the potential to promote reductions in social inequalities through reducing barriers to accessible care. At present, there appears to be no UK online at-risk gambling intervention that is publicly available.

Study Overview

• Status: Completed
• Conditions: Problem Gambling
• Intervention / Treatment: Behavioral: Gambling Personalised Feedback

• Study Type: Interventional
• Enrollment (Actual): 1586
• Phase: Not Applicable

Contacts and Locations

Study Locations

• United Kingdom
  • London, United Kingdom, SE1 9NH
    • King's College London

Participation Criteria

Eligibility Criteria

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

Description

Inclusion Criteria:

• Problem gambling severity index score of 3 or more
• Willingness to complete 1 and 3-month follow-up surveys

Exclusion Criteria

• Do not live in the United Kingdom
• Incorrectly answer attention check question on baseline survey
• Do not endorse that they answered all questions truthfully on the baseline survey

Study Plan

How is the study designed?

Design Details

• Primary Purpose: Other
• Allocation: Randomized
• Interventional Model: Parallel Assignment
• Masking: Single

Number of Arms

2

Arms and Interventions

Participant Group / Arm	Intervention / Treatment
Experimental: Gambling Personalised Feedback; The intervention is a brief online intervention designed to provide personalized normative feedback aimed at motivating reductions in gambling	Behavioral: Gambling Personalised Feedback; The intervention is a brief online intervention designed to provide personalized normative feedback aimed at motivating reductions in gambling
No Intervention: Control; No intervention Control

What is the study measuring?

Primary Outcome Measures

Outcome Measure	Measure Description	Time Frame
number of days gambled in the last month	The number of days the participants reports gambling in the past month	1 and 3 months

Collaborators and Investigators

• Sponsor: King's College London

Study record dates

Study Major Dates

• Study Start (Actual): August 21, 2023
• Primary Completion (Actual): December 30, 2023
• Study Completion (Actual): December 30, 2023

Study Registration Dates

• First Submitted: August 21, 2023
• First Submitted That Met QC Criteria: August 21, 2023
• First Posted (Actual): August 25, 2023

Study Record Updates

• Last Update Posted (Estimated): February 6, 2024
• Last Update Submitted That Met QC Criteria: February 5, 2024
• Last Verified: February 1, 2024

More Information

Terms related to this study

• Additional Relevant MeSH Terms: Mental Disorders; Disruptive, Impulse Control, and Conduct Disorders; Gambling
• Other Study ID Numbers: HR-22/23-36398

Plan for Individual participant data (IPD)

• Plan to Share Individual Participant Data (IPD)?: YES

Drug and device information, study documents

• Studies a U.S. FDA-regulated drug product: No
• Studies a U.S. FDA-regulated device product: No