Development and Acceptability Testing of a Technology-based Intervention to Reduce College Students' Cannabis Misuse

NIH RePORTER · NIH · R34 · $668,110 · view on reporter.nih.gov ↗

Abstract

There are nearly 7 million undergraduate students enrolled in the 20 U.S. states and Washington D.C. that have legalized the use of recreational cannabis. A study of cannabis use across 11 U.S. college campuses found 53% of college students had used cannabis in their lifetimes, and 26.2% had used in the past month. In fact, the cannabis marketing industry, which uses brand personality and lifestyle experiences to sell cannabis products, views young adults as a prime target audience for its marketing efforts. Yet, the human brain continues to develop until age 25, and cannabis has been shown to interfere with brain development and cognition in both longitudinal and cross-sectional studies. So, there is a critical need to educate college students about the risks of cannabis use and to educate those who still choose to use cannabis on how to navigate the complex marketplace of cannabis products. Campus health educators across the country have identified a need for cannabis-related information, but the frequently changing legal and product landscape has made providing such information a challenge. Our long-term goal is to reduce cannabis misuse among young adults. We have developed an intervention that positively impacts college students' knowledge of cannabis products and laws, efficacy in navigating cannabis products, and risk perceptions. The objective of this application is to refine and assess the feasibility and acceptability of this technology-based intervention for college students that provides information on cannabis products, cannabis marketing, laws, and relevant risks of cannabis use. We will refine our existing content through focus groups with 35 college students and 35 campus health educators and an advisory committee. We will use a mixed method sequential explanatory design consisting of a survey of cannabis users and non- users from three campuses, each in states where cannabis is legal, followed by in-depth interviews with college students to examine intervention acceptability and feasibility. We will examine whether perceptions differ based on past use and predictors associated with cannabis use and misuse. The proposed study will result in a refined, theoretically grounded, expertly designed intervention aimed at increasing young adults’ cannabis literacy. Based on the findings of this study, we will next pursue a larger randomized controlled trial to test intervention efficacy and outcomes across multiple sites in the United States. Ultimately, this intervention will increase awareness of the risks associated with cannabis use while also empowering young adults who choose to use cannabis to do so in an informed manner, reducing cannabis misuse among college students in the United States.

Key facts

NIH application ID
11056639
Project number
1R34DA060303-01A1
Recipient
WASHINGTON STATE UNIVERSITY
Principal Investigator
Stacey Jolene Hust
Activity code
R34
Funding institute
NIH
Fiscal year
2024
Award amount
$668,110
Award type
1
Project period
2024-09-30 → 2027-09-29