# mHealth to Enhance & Sustain Drug Use Reduction of the QUIT BI in Primary Care

> **NIH NIH R01** · UNIVERSITY OF CALIFORNIA LOS ANGELES · 2020 · $723,919

## Abstract

PROJECT SUMMARY. The QUIT-Mobile study proposes to use mobile phone self-monitoring and feedback
to enhance and sustain over 12-months the impacts of the Quit Using Drugs Intervention Trial (QUIT), an ef-
fective screening and brief intervention (SBI) previously successful in reducing risky drug use (i.e., moderate
use) in low-income, diverse patients over a 3-month follow up. We propose to conduct the QUIT-Mobile study
for primary care patients who receive care in 8 clinics of federally qualified health centers (FQHC) in Southern
California over 12-months follow up, comparing to QUIT and Usual Care (UC). The proposed study is an Effec-
tiveness-Implementation Hybrid Type 1 design consisting of a single-blind, 3-arm, RCT with adult, mostly La-
tino FQHC primary care patients with risky drug use (ASSIST score 4-26), randomized to 3 conditions
(n=320/arm, n=960 total): 1) QUIT-Mobile; 2) standard QUIT; 3) Usual Care. Qualitative data on implementa-
tion facilitators and barriers will inform future scale-up and sustainability, in addition to cost data and cost-effec-
tiveness analysis. The aims are to examine effectiveness in reducing risky drug use and cost-effectiveness
comparing the three arms over 3-, 6- and 12-months. Drug use measures include urine drug tests, and timeline
follow-back self-reports for past 7-days and past 30-days (risky drug users have sporadic drug use patterns
requiring longer self-report recalls for drug use that urine screens may not detect). The 3-arm study enables
testing of the independent and synergistic effects of QUIT-Mobile compared to QUIT and both to Usual Care,
acknowledging that mHealth components alone may not be effective outside of a clinical/coaching relationship.
The 12-month timeline reflects anticipated scale-up scenarios of annual primary care visits when screening
and brief intervention would be repeated routinely. QUIT contains 3 components: 1) patient screening with the
WHO ASSIST, 2) brief clinician advice (<4 minutes) including opioid overdose prevention education, and 3) 2-
and 6-week telephone drug-use health coaching sessions utilizing motivational interviewing and cognitive be-
havioral techniques, delivered by paraprofessional health coaches. QUIT-Mobile proposes to test the addition
of mobile phone self-monitoring, feedback, and coach monitoring dashboard to enhance and sustain QUIT's
drug use reductions using mobile app, text-messaging (SMS), or interactive voice response (IVR) to allow par-
ticipation by with varying technological preferences. This study does not test which technology platform is more
effective, but rather, the effectiveness of the intervention functions (i.e., self-monitoring, automated feedback,
coach monitoring) that are delivered via patients' preferred technologies. This study is novel and timely in inte-
grating massively scalable mobile phone tools into an effective primary care BI to prevent substance use disor-
der (SUD) in FQHC patients delivered by paraprofessiona...

## Key facts

- **NIH application ID:** 9974313
- **Project number:** 1R01DA047386-01A1
- **Recipient organization:** UNIVERSITY OF CALIFORNIA LOS ANGELES
- **Principal Investigator:** Lillian Gelberg
- **Activity code:** R01 (R01, R21, SBIR, etc.)
- **Funding institute:** NIH
- **Fiscal year:** 2020
- **Award amount:** $723,919
- **Award type:** 1
- **Project period:** 2020-06-01 → 2025-03-31

## Primary source

NIH RePORTER: https://reporter.nih.gov/project-details/9974313

## Citation

> US National Institutes of Health, RePORTER application 9974313, mHealth to Enhance & Sustain Drug Use Reduction of the QUIT BI in Primary Care (1R01DA047386-01A1). Retrieved via AI Analytics 2026-05-23 from https://api.ai-analytics.org/grant/nih/9974313. Licensed CC0.

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