Distracted DrivingNCT05469477
Increasing Seat Belt Wearing and Decreasing Handheld Phone Use While Driving
A study testing Persuasive education, WOOP (aka, mental contrasting with implementation intentions., Wish, Outcome, Obstacle, Plan) and Customized Habit Tips in people with Distracted Driving and Impaired Driving, run by University of Pennsylvania at 1 site in United States.
Trial summary
The study team is proposing to conduct a randomized controlled trial to determine the effectiveness of behavioral and financial incentives on phone use while driving and seat belt adherence. Each arm will receive a support text if their app is not collecting data. Read more about this study
- Who is it for?
- Ages 18 years and olderHealthy volunteers can take part
- Conditions the study is for
- Distracted Driving, Impaired Driving, Driving Behaviors
- What is being tested?
- Persuasive education, WOOP (aka, mental contrasting with implementation intentions., Wish, Outcome, Obstacle, Plan) and Customized Habit Tips
- Type of treatment
- Lifestyle or therapy programme
- Could I receive a placebo?
- No, everyone receives an active treatment
- How many people
- 1,139 participants
- Where
- 1 siteUnited States
- Study dates
- 12 Mar 2023to 29 Jun 2023
- Phase
- Interventional
- Are there results?
- None posted in the registry
Key requirements
Who can take part, as listed by the sponsor. Only the study team can confirm whether you are eligible, so take this list to your doctor.
- Ages 18 years and older
- All sexes
- Healthy volunteers accepted
- Adult, Older adult
Who may be able to join
- Are a GM/OnStar customer.
- Are 18 or older.
- Meet minimum trip requirements.
- Uses vehicle with OnStar
- At least 5 weeks of baseline trip data with >=8 trips/week at baseline on average
- Baseline seat belt use <= 75% on trips less than 2 miles and <= 90 on trips greater than 2 miles
Show all 9Show fewer
- English reading ability
- Have an email address
- Have a smartphone with iPhone iOS 12 or later or Android OS 7 or later
Who cannot join
- You are unable to read and understand English
Trial locations and contacts
1 site in 1 country.
United States1 site
University of Pennsylvania
Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, 19104
About this study
Official title: Behavioral Interventions to Increase Seat Belt Wearing and Decrease Handheld Phone Use While Driving
The study team is proposing to conduct a randomized controlled trial to determine the effectiveness of behavioral and financial incentives on phone use while driving and seat belt adherence. Each arm will receive a support text if their app is not collecting data. The behavioral engagement intervention includes persuasive education, mental contrasting with implementation intentions, customized habit tips, weekly feedback about participants' streaks, and encouraging SMS texts. The two financial incentive interventions add on weekly raffles or shared pots for participants with perfect streaks.
- Conditions
- Distracted Driving, Impaired Driving, Driving Behaviors
- Being tested
- Persuasive education, WOOP (aka, mental contrasting with implementation intentions., Wish, Outcome, Obstacle, Plan), Customized Habit Tips, Raffle Financial Incentive, Shared Pot Financial Incentive
- Keywords
- Habit Formation, Financial Incentives, Phone Use While Driving, Seat Belt Wearing
What participants receive
What participants receive. In a randomised study each person is assigned to one group by chance.
Persuasive educationBehavioural
The research team will use psychology and communications research to present information about seat belts and distracted driving in a way that builds intrinsic motivation to change. Because positively framed messages are more effective at promoting seat belt wearing, the team's messaging will employ this framing. Education will address common reasons that survey participants give for not consistently buckling up or for phone use while driving.
WOOP (aka, mental contrasting with implementation intentions., Wish, Outcome, Obstacle, Plan)Behavioural
Participants will receive an intervention on improving driving behavior with a specific goal in mind and how to reach that goal. Participants will do this by thinking through 4 parts: a wish, an outcome, an obstacle and a plan. This has been shown to build motivation, and help achieve the desired change.
Customized Habit TipsBehavioural
Participants will receive weekly text-message tips, informed by findings from survey responses, plus reminders to address stated obstacles.
Raffle Financial IncentiveBehavioural
Each week, participants who adhere to seat belt use or abstain from phone use while driving get a chance at prize money. One winner will be randomly chosen for each target behavior and earn prize money; the rest will not receive compensation.
Shared Pot Financial IncentiveBehavioural
This will be identical to the raffle incentive, except that each week participants who adhere to seat belt use or abstain from phone use while driving will be guaranteed an equal share of prize money.
Weekly SMS Support textBehavioural
Participants will receive a support SMS to troubleshoot, etc. if the Way to Drive app is not collecting trip data.
Weekly SMS EncouragementBehavioural
Those who have a perfect streak going midway through each week will receive an additional encouraging message cheering them on.
| Study group | Role | What they receive |
|---|---|---|
| Control | Other | Participants are asked to buckle up and not engage in handheld phone use while driving. No further messaging will be provided about their behavior, and participants will not receive financial incentives for avoiding risky driving behavior. Receives: Behavioral: Weekly SMS Support text |
| Behavioral Engagement | Experimental | Participants will receive a multicomponent safer driving intervention based on behavioral science. This will include persuasive education, WOOP (mental contrasting with implementation intentions) and customized habit tips. Receives: Behavioral: Persuasive education; Behavioral: WOOP (aka, mental contrasting with implementation intentions., Wish, Outcome, Obstacle, Plan); Behavioral: Customized Habit Tips; Behavioral: Weekly SMS Support text; Behavioral: Weekly SMS Encouragement |
| Raffle incentive + behavioral engagement | Experimental | Participants will receive the entire multicomponent safer driving behavioral intervention from arm 2. Participants will also be eligible for the Raffle Financial incentive, where participants can earn prize money for seat belt adherence and/or no phone use while driving. Receives: Behavioral: Persuasive education; Behavioral: WOOP (aka, mental contrasting with implementation intentions., Wish, Outcome, Obstacle, Plan); Behavioral: Customized Habit Tips; Behavioral: Raffle Financial Incentive; Behavioral: Weekly SMS Support text; Behavioral: Weekly SMS Encouragement |
| Shared pot incentive + behavioral engagement | Experimental | Participants will receive the entire multicomponent safer driving behavioral intervention from arm 2. This arm will be identical to Arm 3, except there will be a shared pot financial incentive instead of a raffle. Participants that abstain from phone use while driving and seat belt adherence earn an equal share of prize money allocated for the entire group. Receives: Behavioral: Persuasive education; Behavioral: WOOP (aka, mental contrasting with implementation intentions., Wish, Outcome, Obstacle, Plan); Behavioral: Customized Habit Tips; Behavioral: Shared Pot Financial Incentive; Behavioral: Weekly SMS Support text; Behavioral: Weekly SMS Encouragement |
What is being measured
The primary outcome is the main question the study is designed to answer.
Proportion of trips with seat belt use
Calculated as the number of trips during which a driver's seat belt click was detected, divided by total number of trips (defined as 1/10 of a mile or greater).
Measured: 105 days
Secondary outcomes (1)
Seconds of active (handheld) phone use per hour of driving
This is a composite outcome that measures the proportion of total trip time in which the driver is engaged in handheld phone call use or non-call handheld use (e.g. texting, swiping, and typing), as measured by the Way to Drive app.
Measured: 105 days
Timeline
From the start of the study to its completion; the mark is today. Estimated dates are the sponsor’s plan.
- First posted21 Jul 2022
- Study start12 Mar 2023
- Primary completion29 Jun 2023
- Study completion29 Jun 2023
Resources
- Official record on ClinicalTrials.govThe registry entry this page is built from, with its full change history.
- Publications (5)Papers the sponsor has linked to this study.
- Other trials for Distracted DrivingStudies of the same condition, open and under way.
- More trials run by University of PennsylvaniaThe sponsor's other registered studies.
- What the trial phases meanHow a treatment moves from first tests in people to approval.
More details
For doctors and researchers: how the study is designed, who runs it, and its registry IDs.
Study design
- Study type
- Interventional
- Phase
- Phase N/A
- Primary purpose
- Treatment
- Allocation
- Randomised
- Intervention model
- Factorial
- Masking
- None (open label)
- Enrolment
- 1,139 participants (actual)
Sponsor and investigators
- Lead sponsor
- University of Pennsylvania
- Sponsor type
- University, hospital or other
- Collaborators
- General Motors (GM)
- Responsible party
- Principal investigator, M. Kit Delgado, MD, University of Pennsylvania
- Investigators
- Mucio Delgado, Principal investigator, University of Pennsylvania
IDs, dates and publications
- ClinicalTrials.gov ID
- NCT05469477
- Sponsor's protocol ID
- 851411
- Status last verified
- Sep 2023
- First submitted
- 18 Jul 2022
- Last updated
- 3 Oct 2023
- Results posted
- No
- FDA-regulated drug
- No
- FDA-regulated device
- No
- Individual data sharing
- No
Publications
Dingus TA, Guo F, Lee S, Antin JF, Perez M, Buchanan-King M, Hankey J. Driver crash risk factors and prevalence evaluation using naturalistic driving data. Proc Natl Acad Sci U S A. 2016 Mar 8;113(10):2636-41. doi: 10.1073/pnas.1513271113. Epub 2016 Feb 22.
PubMed 26903657Gershon P, Sita KR, Zhu C, Ehsani JP, Klauer SG, Dingus TA, Simons-Morton BG. Distracted Driving, Visual Inattention, and Crash Risk Among Teenage Drivers. Am J Prev Med. 2019 Apr;56(4):494-500. doi: 10.1016/j.amepre.2018.11.024. Epub 2019 Feb 21.
PubMed 30799162Klauer SG, Guo F, Simons-Morton BG, Ouimet MC, Lee SE, Dingus TA. Distracted driving and risk of road crashes among novice and experienced drivers. N Engl J Med. 2014 Jan 2;370(1):54-9. doi: 10.1056/NEJMsa1204142.
PubMed 24382065Simons-Morton BG, Guo F, Klauer SG, Ehsani JP, Pradhan AK. Keep your eyes on the road: young driver crash risk increases according to duration of distraction. J Adolesc Health. 2014 May;54(5 Suppl):S61-7. doi: 10.1016/j.jadohealth.2013.11.021.
PubMed 24759443Ebert JP, Yan R, Friday S, Small D, McDonald CC, Bartolozzi K, Delgado MK. Behavioral Interventions for Increasing Seat Belt Use and Decreasing Distracted Driving Using Telematics: A National Randomized Trial. Am J Public Health. 2025 May;115(5):758-768. doi: 10.2105/AJPH.2024.307980. Epub 2025 Mar 13.
PubMed 40080744
Study at a glance
From the registry record, last updated by the sponsor on 3 Oct 2023. Recruitment status is as the sponsor reported it: confirm with the study team.
- Official title
- Behavioral Interventions to Increase Seat Belt Wearing and Decrease Handheld Phone Use While Driving
- ClinicalTrials.gov ID
- NCT05469477
- Acronym / sponsor ID
- 851411
- Conditions
- Distracted Driving, Impaired Driving, Driving Behaviors
- Keywords
- Habit Formation, Financial Incentives, Phone Use While Driving, Seat Belt Wearing
- Study type
- Interventional
- Recruitment status
- Completed
- Enrolment
- 1,139 participants (actual)
- Lead sponsor
- University of PennsylvaniaUniversity, hospital or other
- Collaborators
- General Motors (GM)
- Study start
- 12 Mar 2023 (actual)
- Primary completion
- 29 Jun 2023 (actual)
- Study completion
- 29 Jun 2023 (actual)
- First posted
- 21 Jul 2022 (actual)
- Results
- Not posted in the source record
Clinical summary
The research question as the sponsor registered it. This describes what the study plans to test, not what it found.
The study team is proposing to conduct a randomized controlled trial to determine the effectiveness of behavioral and financial incentives on phone use while driving and seat belt adherence. Each arm will receive a support text if their app is not collecting data. The behavioral engagement intervention includes persuasive education, mental contrasting with implementation intentions, customized habit tips, weekly feedback about participants' streaks, and encouraging SMS texts. The two financial incentive interventions add on weekly raffles or shared pots for participants with perfect streaks.
Study design
- Primary purpose
- Treatment
- Allocation
- Randomised
- Intervention model
- Factorial
- Masking
- None (open label)
- Number of arms
- 4
| Arm | Type | Receives |
|---|---|---|
| Control | Other | Behavioral: Weekly SMS Support textParticipants are asked to buckle up and not engage in handheld phone use while driving. No further messaging will be provided about their behavior, and participants will not receive financial incentives for avoiding risky driving behavior. |
| Behavioral Engagement | Experimental | Behavioral: Persuasive education, Behavioral: WOOP (aka, mental contrasting with implementation intentions., Wish, Outcome, Obstacle, Plan), Behavioral: Customized Habit Tips, Behavioral: Weekly SMS Support text, Behavioral: Weekly SMS EncouragementParticipants will receive a multicomponent safer driving intervention based on behavioral science. This will include persuasive education, WOOP (mental contrasting with implementation intentions) and customized habit tips. |
| Raffle incentive + behavioral engagement | Experimental | Behavioral: Persuasive education, Behavioral: WOOP (aka, mental contrasting with implementation intentions., Wish, Outcome, Obstacle, Plan), Behavioral: Customized Habit Tips, Behavioral: Raffle Financial Incentive, Behavioral: Weekly SMS Support text, Behavioral: Weekly SMS EncouragementParticipants will receive the entire multicomponent safer driving behavioral intervention from arm 2. Participants will also be eligible for the Raffle Financial incentive, where participants can earn prize money for seat belt adherence and/or no phone use while driving. |
| Shared pot incentive + behavioral engagement | Experimental | Behavioral: Persuasive education, Behavioral: WOOP (aka, mental contrasting with implementation intentions., Wish, Outcome, Obstacle, Plan), Behavioral: Customized Habit Tips, Behavioral: Shared Pot Financial Incentive, Behavioral: Weekly SMS Support text, Behavioral: Weekly SMS EncouragementParticipants will receive the entire multicomponent safer driving behavioral intervention from arm 2. This arm will be identical to Arm 3, except there will be a shared pot financial incentive instead of a raffle. Participants that abstain from phone use while driving and seat belt adherence earn an equal share of prize money allocated for the entire group. |
Who may qualify
- Ages
- 18 years and older
- Sex
- All
- Healthy volunteers
- Accepted
- Age groups
- Adult, Older adult
Key inclusion criteria (9 listed)
- Are a GM/OnStar customer.
- Are 18 or older.
- Meet minimum trip requirements.
- Uses vehicle with OnStar
- At least 5 weeks of baseline trip data with >=8 trips/week at baseline on average
Key exclusion criteria (1 listed)
- You are unable to read and understand English
Eligibility is decided by the study team after screening; this overview does not establish that a patient qualifies. Full inclusion and exclusion criteria.
Interventions
| Intervention | Type | Arms |
|---|---|---|
| Persuasive educationThe research team will use psychology and communications research to present information about seat belts and distracted driving in a way that builds intrinsic motivation to change. Because positively framed messages are more effective at promoting seat belt wearing, the team's messaging will employ this framing. Education will address common reasons that survey participants give for not consistently buckling up or for phone use while driving. | Behavioural | Behavioral Engagement, Raffle incentive + behavioral engagement, Shared pot incentive + behavioral engagement |
| WOOP (aka, mental contrasting with implementation intentions., Wish, Outcome, Obstacle, Plan)Participants will receive an intervention on improving driving behavior with a specific goal in mind and how to reach that goal. Participants will do this by thinking through 4 parts: a wish, an outcome, an obstacle and a plan. This has been shown to build motivation, and help achieve the desired change. | Behavioural | Behavioral Engagement, Raffle incentive + behavioral engagement, Shared pot incentive + behavioral engagement |
| Customized Habit TipsParticipants will receive weekly text-message tips, informed by findings from survey responses, plus reminders to address stated obstacles. | Behavioural | Behavioral Engagement, Raffle incentive + behavioral engagement, Shared pot incentive + behavioral engagement |
| Raffle Financial IncentiveEach week, participants who adhere to seat belt use or abstain from phone use while driving get a chance at prize money. One winner will be randomly chosen for each target behavior and earn prize money; the rest will not receive compensation. | Behavioural | Raffle incentive + behavioral engagement |
| Shared Pot Financial IncentiveThis will be identical to the raffle incentive, except that each week participants who adhere to seat belt use or abstain from phone use while driving will be guaranteed an equal share of prize money. | Behavioural | Shared pot incentive + behavioral engagement |
| Weekly SMS Support textParticipants will receive a support SMS to troubleshoot, etc. if the Way to Drive app is not collecting trip data. | Behavioural | Behavioral Engagement, Control, Raffle incentive + behavioral engagement, Shared pot incentive + behavioral engagement |
| Weekly SMS EncouragementThose who have a perfect streak going midway through each week will receive an additional encouraging message cheering them on. | Behavioural | Behavioral Engagement, Raffle incentive + behavioral engagement, Shared pot incentive + behavioral engagement |
Primary outcome
Proportion of trips with seat belt use
Time frame: 105 days
Calculated as the number of trips during which a driver's seat belt click was detected, divided by total number of trips (defined as 1/10 of a mile or greater).
1 secondary outcome
Seconds of active (handheld) phone use per hour of driving
Time frame: 105 days
Results and safety
The study is completed, but results are not available in the source record. That does not mean the treatment did or did not work.
Research links
- Official record on ClinicalTrials.govLast updated by the sponsor 3 Oct 2023.
- Background: PubMed 26903657Dingus TA, Guo F, Lee S, Antin JF, Perez M, Buchanan-King M, Hankey J. Driver crash risk factors and prevalence evaluation using naturalistic driving data. Proc Natl Acad Sci U S A. 2016 Mar 8;113(10):2636-41. doi: 10.1073/pnas.1513271113. Epub 2016 Feb 22.
- Background: PubMed 30799162Gershon P, Sita KR, Zhu C, Ehsani JP, Klauer SG, Dingus TA, Simons-Morton BG. Distracted Driving, Visual Inattention, and Crash Risk Among Teenage Drivers. Am J Prev Med. 2019 Apr;56(4):494-500. doi: 10.1016/j.amepre.2018.11.024. Epub 2019 Feb 21.
- Background: PubMed 24382065Klauer SG, Guo F, Simons-Morton BG, Ouimet MC, Lee SE, Dingus TA. Distracted driving and risk of road crashes among novice and experienced drivers. N Engl J Med. 2014 Jan 2;370(1):54-9. doi: 10.1056/NEJMsa1204142.
- Background: PubMed 24759443Simons-Morton BG, Guo F, Klauer SG, Ehsani JP, Pradhan AK. Keep your eyes on the road: young driver crash risk increases according to duration of distraction. J Adolesc Health. 2014 May;54(5 Suppl):S61-7. doi: 10.1016/j.jadohealth.2013.11.021.
- Derived from this study: PubMed 40080744Ebert JP, Yan R, Friday S, Small D, McDonald CC, Bartolozzi K, Delgado MK. Behavioral Interventions for Increasing Seat Belt Use and Decreasing Distracted Driving Using Telematics: A National Randomized Trial. Am J Public Health. 2025 May;115(5):758-768. doi: 10.2105/AJPH.2024.307980. Epub 2025 Mar 13.
- Individual participant dataSharing planned: No
Referral and contact
AzTrials does not enrol participants or take referrals. Contact the study team or a site listed below; they decide who can take part. This study is not recruiting at the moment.
Mucio Delgado principal investigator
University of Pennsylvania
1 site in 1 country: see every site and its status.
Questions about this trial
What is this clinical trial studying?
A study testing Persuasive education, WOOP (aka, mental contrasting with implementation intentions., Wish, Outcome, Obstacle, Plan) and Customized Habit Tips in people with Distracted Driving and Impaired Driving, run by University of Pennsylvania at 1 site in United States.
The full registered description is in the About this study section and the official record.
Who may be eligible to take part?
The sponsor lists 9 inclusion and 1 exclusion criteria. Eligibility is decided by the study team after screening, so read the full criteria and contact a listed site.
Is this clinical trial currently recruiting?
The record says: finished, as of the sponsor's last update on 3 Oct 2023. Status can change between updates, so confirm with the study contact before making plans.
Where is the study taking place?
The record lists 1 site in United States. Whether a site is taking part right now should be confirmed with that site. See every site.
What are the possible benefits and risks?
They depend on the study and the treatment, and no study can promise a benefit. The study team explains the known risks during informed consent, before anyone joins; the record itself does not list them.
Are results available for this study?
The study is completed, but results are not available in the source record. That does not mean the treatment did or did not work.
How can a doctor refer a patient or contact the research team?
The record lists no contact. The official record names the sponsor, who can be asked directly. AzTrials does not enrol participants or take referrals.
What does the primary outcome measure?
Proportion of trips with seat belt use (time frame: 105 days). It is what the study was designed to measure, not a finding.
Where can I read the original study information?
On the ClinicalTrials.gov record for NCT05469477, which also lists 5 linked publications.
Does a listing mean the treatment is approved or proven to work?
No. A listing means the study is registered. It does not show that the treatment is safe, works, or is approved by a regulator.
How often is this information updated?
AzTrials copies changed records from ClinicalTrials.gov every night and reloads the whole registry every week. The sponsor last updated this record on 3 Oct 2023.