The Step Away project provides a personalized approach to reduce drinking by using a mobile chatbot or app to help adults who want to manage their alcohol use. In the current phase of the project, researchers are evaluating the effectiveness of the chatbot or app. The stigma of the topic often makes it difficult to recruit subjects for their studies, so for this study they used Facebook advertising.
Robyn Mertz, a graduate research assistant with the Center for Behavioral Health Research and Services (CBHRS), submitted an analysis of these advertising efforts to the Society of Behavioral Medicine’s national conference, held April 12-16, 2021. The abstract was co-authored by Alexandra Edwards and Diane King of CBHRS and Patrick Dulin of UAA’s Department of Psychology. It earned a conference citation award.
Mertz said that Facebook was a cost-effective tool for getting a sample size quickly. She worked with Edwards to recruit enough subjects for three groups: one to test the chatbot, one to test the app, and one that wouldn’t use anything. Mertz and Edwards were able to monitor Facebook analytics to make adjustments after seeing which ads recruited more people.
They learned lessons along the way. Subjects are given a small monetary award for participating in a study, but this can attract “phishers.” “Some people signed up just for the money,” said Mertz. “We had to make sure the people we were putting into the study were real people by checking their IP addresses and making sure they gave valid phone numbers.”
After the study, there’s a final check to make sure the data can be used for analysis. “In our first and our last surveys, we ask participants about their demographics. If the information they give us is drastically different, we know it’s not valid, so we don’t enter it into the analysis.”
The team is currently finishing up the quantitative data analysis, which will be followed by qualitative analysis.
Mertz has been working with CBHRS for three years, and on the Step Away project for two years. She is a fourth-year Ph.D. student in the clinical community psychology program at UAA.
Research reported in the abstract/video was supported by the National Institute on Alcohol Abuse and Alcoholism of the National Institutes of Health Award Number R34AA026440
Video: “Using Facebook Advertising as a Recruitment Tool for an mHealth Alcohol Intervention Clinical Trial.”
