Collecting drug use data via cell phone

Researchers studying the situational use of malt liquor and marijuana are employing an automated cell-phone calling system to collect data. The Interactive Voice Response (IVR) system calls you, well if you're involved in the study that is, and asks a series of questions about what you're up to at the moment and, I guess, whether you're stoned, drunk, or have immediate plans to be. Health behavior specialist R. Lorraine Collins at the University of Buffalo came up with the system after using PDA-based approaches to data-gathering that she says put too much responsibility on the study participant. I'd imagine that if you're really lit, you may not remember (or bother) to input the who, what, when, and where later on. From the University of Buffalo:

(Collins) showed that, in what is known in the psychology research community as "ecological momentary assessment" (EMA) or "right here, right now" data collection, cell phones are more familiar to research participants and therefore training is easier; and that with IVR, data is stored instantly, removing any issues around the loss of information.

"This is an interesting and useful way to collect data," said Collins. "It eliminates the problems associated with study participants having to recall their behavior, and cell phones are ubiquitous with young people, who are our main targets in these studies. We capture their data right away. It's all computerized and stored immediately."

"Two New NIH grants Use Cell Phones to Collect Real-Time Data on Substance Use" (via Dose Nation)

• [Anonymous]

  My friend volunteered for this study. (You want to know why? They paid cash, of course!)

  But let me tell you, if there’s one thing that would make me want to drink it’s if my cell phone kept going off and asking me if I want to drink.

• [Anonymous]

  Menthol and Grape. Click.
  (captcha: whisky Hayns)

• [Kyle Armbruster]

  …who would answer such a question–especially when they obviously know your cellphone number???

• [Anonymous]

  When will people realize that malt liquor is just fine on its own?

• [octopod]

  sounds annoying, but doesn’t involve expired auto warranties, so could be weirder.

• [epi_mom]

  This is not unusual within survey methods circles and is a fantastic way to reach traditionally hard-to-reach populations. Back in the ’90s, a survey guru I know was involved in several surveys with similar methodology; topics included drug use and prostitution. The researchers gave each of the participants a cell phone and the participant would get a monetary incentive for so many calls answered. It usually leads to high response rates and reduces bias, since participants are often more likely to answer sensitive health/behavioral questions for an automated system than they are to tell them to an interviewer. And, yes—public health researchers go to amazing lengths to protect the privacy of their participants.

• [coop]

  “who would answer such a question”?

  Easy, the same people who post incriminating stuff on FB or YT, and then get suprised when the cops, or their mum come calling.

  coop

• [David Pescovitz]

  @Kyle, as I said, they only call if you’re participating in the study.

  @octopod, Totally! Now I’m getting the auto warranty calls in Spanish too!

  • [Kyle Armbruster]

    Of course participation is voluntary. I still don’t understand why anyone would volunteer. I do psych research myself, and even though I never share personally-identifiable information, I can, of course, connect people with responses. I could get you the names of all of the respondents if you came to me with a subpoena, and I could connect them up to their responses. Luckily for both of us, I don’t think anyone is going to subpoena foreign language speaking scores. For a drug study? Utilizing personally-identifiable, public-record information as the identifying factor? Yikes. No thanks.

    You can write anything you want into a waiver as a researcher, and you can also be the most careful person in the world with that data (most of us are). But if the cops came knocking on my door, I’m not going to jail for you.

    So the question I have is not really about answering the question; it’s about volunteering to be asked, and then answering the question! Unless there’s some sort of immunity granted to participants, I don’t understand why anyone would participate.

    Anonymous questionnaires? Sure. Personalized, automated calls to my cellphone? No freakin’ way!

• [Anonymous]

  Participation in research is voluntary – and participants are usually paid for their participation. Thus, the motivation.

  Also, it should be noted that generally, personal information is kept confidential, and any actual data (i.e. drug usage information) would be kept separate from all identifying information, with no way to connect the two.

  • [octopod]

    hmm. is cell phone traffic privileged communication in canada?