Chatbot for Online Support Groups to Treat Tobacco Addiction

Sponsor
University of California, Irvine
Study ID
NCT06952725
Status
Not Yet Recruiting

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Conditions

  • Tobacco Dependence
  • Tobacco Use Disorder

Eligibility Criteria

Sex
ALL
Age
18 Years - 75 Years
Healthy Volunteers
Accepted

Interventions

  • online quit-smoking support group with intelligent chatbot — BEHAVIORAL
    In the intervention arm (N=60), each quit-smoking peer support group will be connected to an intelligent chatbot running on a secure local server as a trained LLM (large language model). This chatbot will monitor all posts in the group and seek to comprehend these posts using the training it has been provided. If a group member makes a post and no one responds with about 10 seconds, the chatbot will respond using one of its 25 response libraries created from knowledge bases, which contain over 1k responses in total. In effect, the intelligent chatbot will function as an additional member of the GroupMe support group, but a member that only responds if no human does so.
  • online quit-smoking support group with unintelligent bot — BEHAVIORAL
    In the control arm (N=60), the support groups will be connected to our original automated message-posting bot running on our secure local server. This automated message-posting bot will lack the response capabilities of the intelligent chatbot; it will not respond to posts if no human group member does but, instead, remain silent. However, it will post the same daily discussion topic, and at the same time of day, as the intelligent chatbot.

Study Details

Investigators will conduct a pilot RCT to test the efficacy of an intelligent chatbot to aid small, private, quit-smoking peer support groups. Participants will be randomized to an intervention arm (chatbot-enhanced support group), or a control arm (support group only). In the intervention arm (N=60), each support group will be connected to an intelligent chatbot running on a secure local server as a trained LLM (large language model). The intelligent chatbot will function as an additional member of the GroupMe support group, but a member that only responds if no human does so. In the control arm (N=60), the support groups will be connected to an automated message-posting bot running on a secure local server. This automated message-posting bot will lack the response capabilities of the intelligent chatbot. But both the intelligent chatbot and the automated message-posting bot will post a pre-written daily discussion topic to encourage participants to discuss issues known to facilitate tobacco cessation or group bonding.

Key Dates

First listed
May 1, 2025
Start date
Dec 1, 2026
Status verified
May 2026
Primary completion
Jun 1, 2028
Completion
Jun 1, 2028

Study Design

Enrollment
120 participants (estimated)
Allocation
RANDOMIZED
Intervention model
PARALLEL
Primary purpose
TREATMENT

Arms

  • Experimental: test: support group with intelligent chatbot
    When participants post to their support groups, the intelligent chatbot will detect relevant post types and generate responses which will be posted back to them and their group, if no human responds to the post within about 10 seconds. The intelligent chatbot will also post a daily discussion topic.
  • Active Comparator: control: support group with unintelligent bot
    The unintelligent chatbot will not respond to participants' posts; it will merely post a daily discussion topic.

Primary Outcome Measure

Overall posts per participant [ Time Frame: End of 90-day intervention ]

Central Contacts

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