The Tick App: Changing Behaviors With Educational Messaging
For patients and families
In plain language
An automatic summary of structured registry data. It is an orientation aid, not a substitute for the official protocol or a physician assessment.
- What is being studied
- The protocol lists: Educational Materials delivered via the Tick App.
- Who it may be relevant to
- Registry conditions: Tick Bites. Basic parameters: from 18 years · All.
- What needs checking
- Age, condition and sex are only basic indicators. Prior treatment, laboratory values and other mandatory requirements appear in the eligibility criteria below.
- Where it takes place
- United States
- Next step
- Save the trial, show it to the treating physician, and confirm current recruitment with the study center. Costs, documents and travel →
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Official title
The Use of Ecological Momentary Assessments to Assess Tick-borne Disease Risk
Overview
The goal of this work is to evaluate the use of ecological momentary assessments as a tool to assess risk and risk factors for tick encounters and tick-borne diseases. This study will be conducted across the United States, with a focus the upper Midwest and Northeast and with a focus on Wisconsin and will enroll up to 1000 people.
Detailed description
In the United States, several online and smart-phone apps are available to ID a tick (TickID app, North Carolina State University), submit a picture of a tick (TickSpotters.org, an outreach tool within the larger TickEncounter resource center by the University of Rhode Island) or submit a tick for testing (among other public health agencies, TickReport.com by the University of Massachusetts Amherst). Although these tools are accessible throughout the U.S., they focus on the Northeast. In addition, they do not assess human behavior and tick encounters nor do these tools evaluate prevention and education strategies. A recent study in the Netherlands evaluated the use and effectiveness of a preventative and educational tick app ("Tekenbeet"). This app was well-appreciated, well-used, and improved the user's intention to implement preventative measures. This also illustrates the move of information acquisition from in-hand leaflets to information provision through smartphones.
In this study, data on human behavior regarding tick encounters and tick prevention measures will be obtained from a smartphone application using momentary assessments methodology to assess real time behavior and movement. Ecological momentary assessments are a methodological tool for gathering quantitative behavioral data in real-time, or within the framework of a participant's daily routine.
The daily logs feature provides researchers information about what the participant's activity, location, tick encounters, and prevention measures used. This study will analyze participants who complete 7 daily logs. Their daily logs will be analyzed against the types of educational messaging presented to them within the Tick App.
During a portion of the year the opening screen will contain a prevention message and daily log reminder instead of the home screen. The screen will provide a tick check reminder, a link to the daily log and for half the users the screen will also include a reminder about another prevention behavior (for example bathing/showering). Users will be randomly assigned to the two groups to assess if the additional prevention message increases prevention behavior (tick checks and showering/bathing) and the number of tick encounters.
Interventions
- Other Educational Materials delivered via the Tick App
Education about tick bite prevention
Primary outcome measures
- Change in number of tick prevention behaviors [Time frame: up to 12 months]
Secondary outcome measures (1)
- Change in number of self-reported tick encounters [Time frame: up to 12 months]
Eligibility criteria
Inclusion criteria
- Will to participate in 7 days worth of daily activity logs within the Tick App.
- be able and willing to provide informed consent
Exclusion criteria
- Completes less than 7 days worth of daily logs or completes 7+ daily logs but not within 12 months.
Criteria are shown verbatim from the registry (in English). Final eligibility is always assessed by the study center.
Healthy volunteers: Yes
Study design
- Allocation
- Randomized
- Model
- Parallel assignment
- Masking
- Single blind
- Primary purpose
- Other
Study locations
United States · 4 centers
- University of Illinois — Urbana
- Michigan State University — East Lansing
- Columbia University — New York
- Washington State University — Pullman
Identifiers
NCT: NCT06880692 · 2018-0084 · 1U01CK000651-01-00 · Protocol Version 9/11/25 · A073600 · 1U01CK000651-01