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Completed

NCT Number: NCT05946031

Testing the ETM: Examination and Comparison of Different Methods

This study will experimentally assess the comparability of in-lab and remote procedures with hypothetical and real ETM purchase outcomes.

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Key information

Conditions

Cigarette Smoking Behavior Smoking Tobacco Smoking Tobacco Use

Age range

21 year and older

Sex eligibility

All sexes

Study type

Interventional

Phase

Early Phase 1

Primary location

Fralin Biomedical Research Institute

Roanoke, Virginia, 24016, United States

About this study

In a between-group within-subject repeated measures design, participants will be randomly assigned to one of two procedures (in-lab or remote; between-group) and complete two conditions (real and hypothetical; within-subject), which include six trials assessing increasing cigarette prices.

Who can participate

Healthy volunteers accepted: No

Only the study team can determine whether someone qualifies for participation.

Inclusion criteria

  • Provide informed consent
  • Be at least 21 years of age or older
  • Stable tobacco use patterns for at least three months
  • Smoke at least 5 cigarettes daily
  • Use other tobacco products less than weekly
  • Have access to a computer and internet

Exclusion criteria

  • report uncontrolled physical or mental health conditions (e.g., uncontrolled diabetes, high blood pressure, major depressive disorder, etc.),
  • use of smoking cessation medications (e.g., nicotine replacement, bupropion, varenicline) in the past 30 days,
  • report concrete, immediate plans to alter/quit using their usual tobacco products in the next 30 days,
  • be pregnant or lactating

Treatment and study plan

Reat ETM

Drug

Exclusive cigarette smokers will be recruited and will be exposed to the real ETM condition in which tobacco purchases are real and they receive products from one randomly selected trial.

Hypothetical ETM

Drug

Exclusive cigarette smokers will be recruited and will be exposed to the hypothetical ETM condition in which tobacco purchases are hypothetical and they don't receive any products.

Primary outcomes

  1. Cigarette demand

    Time frame: 1 day

    Participants will complete purchasing trials in an Experimental Tobacco Marketplace (ETM) with cigarettes increasing in price. Other product prices in the ETM will remain constant. To obtain dependent measures of demand, participants' purchasing of the price-manipulated commodity in the ETM task will be fit to a modified exponential equation to quantify the relationship between the price of each commodity and purchasing: Q=Q0*10k(exp(-αQ0C)-1) where Q is purchasing of the commodity, C is the price, Q0 is the derived initial purchasing without cost constraints (demand intensity), k is the span of the function in logarithmic units, and α is the demand elasticity.

  2. Nicotine/tobacco products substitution

    Time frame: 1 day

    Participants will complete purchasing trials in an Experimental Tobacco Marketplace (ETM) with cigarettes increasing in price. Other product prices in the ETM will remain constant. To obtain estimates of substitution of price-constant products in the different ETM conditions, the investigators will use ordinary least squares regression to model the relationship of the price-manipulated product to predict total quantity purchased of the price-constant product.

Sponsors and collaborators

Lead sponsor

Virginia Polytechnic Institute and State University

Other

Registry information

Official study title

Testing the Experimental Tobacco Marketplace: Examination and Comparison of Different Methods

Important dates

Study start
2024
Primary completion
2025
Study completion
2025
First posted
Jul 14, 2023
Registry last updated
Jun 5, 2026

OpenTrials presents study information sourced from ClinicalTrials.gov. The official registry record should be consulted for the latest information.

View the official ClinicalTrials.gov record (opens in a new tab)

This listing is for discovery and informational purposes only. It is not medical advice, does not guarantee that a study is recruiting, and does not determine eligibility. Contact the study team and a qualified healthcare professional when considering participation.

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