scholarly journals Development and Acceptability of a Method to Investigate Prescription Drug Misuse in Daily Life: Ecological Momentary Assessment Study

10.2196/21676 ◽  
2020 ◽  
Vol 8 (10) ◽  
pp. e21676
Author(s):  
Lauren M Papp ◽  
Alexandra Barringer ◽  
Shari M Blumenstock ◽  
Pamela Gu ◽  
Madison Blaydes ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Prescription Drug ◽  
Real Time ◽  
Daily Life ◽  
Time Factors ◽  
Drug Misuse ◽  
Completion Rates ◽  
Prescription Drug Misuse ◽  
And Behaviors ◽  
Ecological Momentary

Background Prescription drug misuse and abuse is an established public health challenge, and young adults are particularly affected. There is a striking lack of real-time, naturalistic data collection assessing intentions to misuse and other precipitating factors at the time of actual misuse, leaving the conditions under which individuals are most likely to misuse prescription medications unknown. Ecological momentary assessment (EMA) apps and protocols designed to capture this information would accelerate and expand the knowledge base and could directly contribute to prevention and treatment efforts. Objective The objectives of this study are to describe the development and administration of a mobile app and the EMA protocol designed to collect real-time factors associated with college students’ prescription drug misuse intentions and behaviors in daily life; present completion rates, compliance, acceptability, and reactivity associated with the EMA protocol for participants who endorsed recent prescription drug misuse at screening (ie, risk group; n=300) and those who did not (ie, nonrisk group; n=55); and establish initial construct validity by linking the reports of misuse behaviors in daily life collected via the EMA app to prescription drug misuse reported on a standard survey. Methods An EMA data collection app and protocol were designed specifically to capture hypothesized contextual factors along with prescription drug misuse intentions and behaviors in daily life. Using this protocol, young adult college students (N=352) completed signal- and event-contingent reports over a 28-day period. When the intention to misuse a prescription drug was endorsed, a brief follow-up prompt was sent 15 min later to collect participants’ indications of whether or not misuse had occurred. Results Risk-group participants were significantly more likely than nonrisk counterparts to endorse any prescription drug misuse intentions in daily life (P<.001), to complete one or more follow-up reports (P<.001), and to endorse any prescription drug misuse behavior in daily life on the follow-ups (P<.001). Overall, participants demonstrated consistent engagement with the EMA procedures and returned an average of 74.5 (SD 23.82; range 10-122) reports. Participants in the risk and nonrisk groups did not differ in the number of reports they completed (P=.12), the number of their reporting days (P=.32), or their average completion rates (P=.14). The results indicated some evidence of reactivity to the momentary reporting procedure. Participants reported uniformly positive experiences and remained highly engaged throughout the reporting protocol and broader study. Conclusions The novel EMA app and protocol provide an effective way to assess real-time factors associated with prescription drug misuse intentions and behaviors in daily life. The resulting investigations offer the potential to provide highly translatable information for research and prevention efforts.

scholarly journals Development and Acceptability of a Method to Investigate Prescription Drug Misuse in Daily Life: Ecological Momentary Assessment Study (Preprint)

2020 ◽  
Author(s):  
Lauren M Papp ◽  
Alexandra Barringer ◽  
Shari M Blumenstock ◽  
Pamela Gu ◽  
Madison Blaydes ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Prescription Drug ◽  
Real Time ◽  
Daily Life ◽  
Time Factors ◽  
Drug Misuse ◽  
Completion Rates ◽  
Prescription Drug Misuse ◽  
And Behaviors ◽  
Ecological Momentary

BACKGROUND Prescription drug misuse and abuse is an established public health challenge, and young adults are particularly affected. There is a striking lack of real-time, naturalistic data collection assessing intentions to misuse and other precipitating factors at the time of actual misuse, leaving the conditions under which individuals are most likely to misuse prescription medications unknown. Ecological momentary assessment (EMA) apps and protocols designed to capture this information would accelerate and expand the knowledge base and could directly contribute to prevention and treatment efforts. OBJECTIVE The objectives of this study are to describe the development and administration of a mobile app and the EMA protocol designed to collect real-time factors associated with college students’ prescription drug misuse intentions and behaviors in daily life; present completion rates, compliance, acceptability, and reactivity associated with the EMA protocol for participants who endorsed recent prescription drug misuse at screening (ie, risk group; n=300) and those who did not (ie, nonrisk group; n=55); and establish initial construct validity by linking the reports of misuse behaviors in daily life collected via the EMA app to prescription drug misuse reported on a standard survey. METHODS An EMA data collection app and protocol were designed specifically to capture hypothesized contextual factors along with prescription drug misuse intentions and behaviors in daily life. Using this protocol, young adult college students (N=352) completed signal- and event-contingent reports over a 28-day period. When the intention to misuse a prescription drug was endorsed, a brief follow-up prompt was sent 15 min later to collect participants’ indications of whether or not misuse had occurred. RESULTS Risk-group participants were significantly more likely than nonrisk counterparts to endorse any prescription drug misuse intentions in daily life (<i>P</i>&lt;.001), to complete one or more follow-up reports (<i>P</i>&lt;.001), and to endorse any prescription drug misuse behavior in daily life on the follow-ups (<i>P</i>&lt;.001). Overall, participants demonstrated consistent engagement with the EMA procedures and returned an average of 74.5 (SD 23.82; range 10-122) reports. Participants in the risk and nonrisk groups did not differ in the number of reports they completed (<i>P</i>=.12), the number of their reporting days (<i>P</i>=.32), or their average completion rates (<i>P</i>=.14). The results indicated some evidence of reactivity to the momentary reporting procedure. Participants reported uniformly positive experiences and remained highly engaged throughout the reporting protocol and broader study. CONCLUSIONS The novel EMA app and protocol provide an effective way to assess real-time factors associated with prescription drug misuse intentions and behaviors in daily life. The resulting investigations offer the potential to provide highly translatable information for research and prevention efforts.

scholarly journals Development and Acceptability of a Method to Investigate Prescription Drug Misuse in Daily Life: An Ecological Momentary Assessment Study

2020 ◽  
Author(s):  
Lauren Papp ◽  
Shari M. Blumenstock ◽  
Chrystyna D Kouros
Keyword(s):  
Prescription Drug ◽  
Real Time ◽  
Risk Group ◽  
Daily Life ◽  
Time Factors ◽  
Drug Misuse ◽  
Completion Rates ◽  
Prescription Drug Misuse ◽  
Ecological Momentary

Background: Prescription drug misuse and abuse is an established public health challenge, and young adults are particularly affected. There is a striking lack of real-time, naturalistic data collection assessing intentions to misuse and other precipitating factors at the time of actual misuse, leaving unknown under what conditions individuals are most likely to misuse prescription medications. Ecological momentary assessment (EMA) applications and protocols designed to capture this information would accelerate and expand the knowledge base and could directly contribute to prevention and treatment efforts.Objective: The objectives in the current study were to (1) describe the development and administration of a mobile application and EMA protocol designed to collect real-time factors associated with college students’ prescription drug misuse intentions and behaviors in daily life; (2) present completion rates, compliance, acceptability, and reactivity associated with the EMA protocol for participants who endorsed recent prescription drug misuse at screening (n = 300; i.e., risk group) and those who did not (n = 55; i.e., non-risk group); and (3) establish initial construct validity by linking the reports of misuse behavior in daily life collected via the EMA app to prescription drug misuse reported on a standard survey.Methods: An EMA data collection app and protocol were designed specifically to capture hypothesized contextual factors along with prescription drug misuse intentions and behaviors in daily life. Using the protocol, young-adult college students (N = 352) completed signal- and event-contingent reports over a 28-day period. When intention to misuse a prescription drug was endorsed, a brief follow-up prompt was sent 15 minutes later to collect participants’ indications of whether or not misuse had occurred.Results: Risk-group participants were significantly more likely than non-risk counterparts to endorse any prescription drug misuse intentions in daily life, to complete one or more follow-up report, and to endorse any prescription drug misuse behavior in daily life on the follow-ups (P-values &lt; .001). Overall, participants demonstrated consistent engagement with the EMA procedures and returned an average of 74.5 reports (SD = 23.82, range 10-122). Participants in risk and non-risk groups did not differ in the number of reports they completed, the number of their reporting days, or their average completion rates (P-values &gt; .10). Results indicated some evidence of reactivity to the momentary reporting procedure. Participants reported uniformly positive experiences and remained highly engaged throughout the reporting protocol and broader study.Conclusions: The novel EMA app and protocol provide an effective way to assess real-time factors associated with prescription drug misuse intentions and behavior in daily life. The resulting investigations offer the potential to provide highly translatable information for research and prevention efforts.

scholarly journals Real-time Momentary Mood as a Predictor of College Students’ Prescription Drug Misuse in Daily Life: Direct Links and the Moderating Role of Background Mental Health

2021 ◽  
Author(s):  
Lauren Papp ◽  
Chrystyna D Kouros ◽  
John Joseph Curtin ◽  
Shari M. Blumenstock
Keyword(s):  
Mental Health ◽  
Young Adults ◽  
Social Anxiety ◽  
Prescription Drug ◽  
Real Time ◽  
Daily Life ◽  
Negative Mood ◽  
Positive Mood ◽  
Drug Misuse ◽  
Prescription Drug Misuse

The present study addressed calls for research to identify real-time predictors of prescription drug misuse (Schepis et al., 2020) by testing young adults’ momentary reports of their negative mood and positive mood as predictors of event-level misuse in daily life. We implemented a 28-day ecological momentary assessment (EMA) procedure that collected individuals’ mood and other contextual experiences in moments preceding prescription drug misuse. Consistent with models of problematic substance use as a means to reduce negativity (Khantzian, 1997), results from hierarchical generalized linear modeling indicated within-person links between higher than usual negative mood and greater likelihood of prescription misuse in daily life. Contrary to the hypothesis, misuse was also more likely when preceded by elevated positive mood. We found consistent support for the hypothesized between-person effects, with prescription misuse in daily life associated with higher average levels of negative mood, and lower average levels of positive mood, across the reporting period. We further predicted that individuals reporting greater levels of social anxiety, depression, and externalizing symptoms would evidence stronger links between their momentary negative mood and prescription misuse. Partial support for this moderation hypothesis was found, with the positive within-person link between negative mood and prescription misuse significantly stronger among individuals higher (vs. lower) on social anxiety and depression. Results provide support for intricate connections between young adults’ momentary mood, mental health symptoms, and prescription drug misuse.

scholarly journals Academic Factors Associated with College Students' Prescription Stimulant Misuse in Daily Life: An Ecological Analysis of Multiple Levels

2020 ◽  
Author(s):  
Lauren Papp
Keyword(s):  
College Students ◽  
Real Time ◽  
Multilevel Models ◽  
Daily Life ◽  
Drug Misuse ◽  
Actual Behavior ◽  
Prescription Drug Misuse ◽  
Academic Factors ◽  
Prescription Stimulant Misuse ◽  
Academic Events

Objective: To identify academic factors pertaining to college students, calendar timing, and particular moments that are uniquely associated with elevated likelihood of prescription stimulant misuse (intentions and actual behavior) in daily life. Participants: Participants were 297 freshmen and sophomores at a large public university in the U.S. in 2017-2019. Methods: Participants completed survey measures during lab visits and ecological momentary assessment procedures in daily life. Hypotheses were tested using multilevel models that accounted for the nested data and demographic covariates. Results: Student, calendar-based, and momentary academic factors were uniquely associated with stimulant misuse intentions in daily life. Real-time academic events, beyond the proportion of academic events experienced, emerged as a robust predictor of misuse behavior. Within-person links between real-time momentary predictors and misuse behavior were moderated by finals week timing. Conclusions: Findings offer implications for prevention and intervention strategies for college students at risk for prescription drug misuse.

Integrating Theories of Gender and Sexuality With Deviance: The Case of Prescription Drug Misuse during Sex

2021 ◽  
pp. 089124322110098
Author(s):  
Laura C. Frizzell ◽  
Mike Vuolo ◽  
Brian C. Kelly
Keyword(s):  
Prescription Drug ◽  
Prescription Drugs ◽  
Minority Stress ◽  
Sexual Minorities ◽  
Deviant Behavior ◽  
Gender And Sexuality ◽  
Drug Misuse ◽  
Identity Conflict ◽  
Prescription Drug Misuse ◽  
Sexual Identities

Social scientists have expended substantial effort to identify group patterns of deviant behavior. Yet beyond the ill-conceived treatment of sexual minorities as inherently deviant, they have rarely considered how gendered sexual identities (GSIs) shape participation in deviance. We argue for the utility of centering theories of gender and sexuality in intersectional deviance research. We demonstrate how this intentional focus on gender and sexuality provides important empirical insights while avoiding past pitfalls of stigmatizing sexual minorities. Drawing on theories of hegemonic masculinity, emphasized femininity, and minority stress together with criminological general strain theory, we demonstrate how societal expectations and constraints generate strains among GSI groups that may lead to distinctly patterned deviance, using the case of prescription drug misuse during sex. We employ thematic analysis of 120 in-depth interviews with people who misuse prescription drugs, stratified by GSI. We identify six themes highlighting distinct pathways from strain to misuse during sex for different GSI groups: intimacy management, achieving sexual freedom, regulating sexual mood, performance confidence, increased sense of control, and managing sexual identity conflict. In this article, we demonstrate the empirical and theoretical importance of centering gender and sexuality in deviance research and provide a roadmap for theoretical integration.

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