Interventions to promote home radon testing: A randomized clinical trial of a smartphone app vs. printed brochures

Radon is a preventable cause of lung cancer, but the percentage of homes tested for radon is low. We previously developed a smartphone app that informs users about radon and allows them to request a free radon test. Here we conducted a randomized, controlled trial comparing the radon app versus printed brochures on radon knowledge, attitudes, and behaviors, including the proportion of participants requesting radon tests. Participants (N = 138) were undergraduates at a midwestern university. Data were analyzed by t-tests, general linear models, and logistic regression. App users showed significantly greater increases in radon knowledge (p = 0.010) and self-efficacy (p < 0.001) and requested tests three times more often than brochure recipients (41.4% vs. 13.2%, p < 0.001). However, the rate of test usage in each condition was low, ~3%. In conclusion, the radon app markedly outperformed brochures in increasing knowledge and requests for radon tests. Future work should focus on methods to increase test usage.