Abstract
Background: The landscape of substance use behavior among young adults has observed rapid changes over time. Intensive
longitudinal designs are ideal for examining and intervening in substance use behavior in real time but rely on high participant
compliance in the study protocol, representing a significant challenge for researchers.
Objective: This study aimed to evaluate the effect of including a personalized data dashboard (DD) in a text-based survey
prompt on study compliance outcomes among college students participating in a 21-day ecological momentary assessment (EMA)
study.
Methods: Participants (N=91; 61/91, 67% female and 84/91, 92% White) were college students who engaged in recent alcohol
and cannabis use. Participants were randomized to either complete a 21-day EMA protocol with 4 prompts/d (EMA Group) or
complete the same EMA protocol with 1 personalized message and a DD indicating multiple metrics of progress in the study,
delivered at 1 randomly selected prompt/d (EMA+DD Group) via a microrandomized design. Study compliance, completion
time, self-reported protocol experiences, and qualitative responses were assessed for both groups.
Results: Levels of compliance were similar across groups. Participants in the EMA+DD Group had overall faster completion
times, with significant week-level differences in weeks 2 and 3 of the study (P=.047 and P=.03, respectively). Although
nonsignificant, small-to-medium effect sizes were observed when comparing the groups in terms of compensation level (P=.08;
Cohen w=0.19) and perceived burden (P=.09; Cohen d=-0.36). Qualitative findings revealed that EMA+DD participants perceived
that seeing their progress facilitated engagement. Within the EMA+DD Group, providing a DD at the moment level did not
significantly impact participants’ likelihood of completing the EMA or completion time at that particular prompt (all P>.05),
with the exception of the first prompt of the day (P=.01 and P<.001).
Conclusions: Providing a DD may be useful to increase engagement, particularly for researchers aiming to assess health
behaviors shortly after a survey prompt is deployed to participants’ mobile devices.
International Registered Report Identifier (IRRID): RR2-10.2196/57664