Frequently Asked Questions

You are paid monthly for visits and for completing study tasks. You can also earn bonuses for meeting task goals and providing access to your smartphone data.

• You will earn $60 for completing three phone visits and reviewing STAR app training materials.
• You can earn about $70 a month in payment and bonuses for completing all tasks and sharing all your data. This amount will be paid on a re-loadable debit card that can be used just like a normal debit card.
• We will also pay you $50 per month to help make sure you always have cell service while on the study.

The total compensation could be valued up to approximately $1,560 if you complete all tasks over the full 12 months of the study.

Yes. You can track the balance and transaction history of your Focus Blue card by logging into your USA Bank Focus Account at this link. Also, you will receive a monthly email from study staff letting you know how much you have earned in payment for completing the previous month’s study tasks.

At the bottom of the task bar page in the app, you will find tips for earning maximum monthly payment. Completing your daily & monthly updates, and not turning off data sharing, are two critical parts of your participation, so follow the study guides and suggestions from our study staff to earn maximum payment. Detailed information on payment and bonuses can be found on this web page.

Payments are issued on the 15th OR the 30th of each month, depending on your enrollment date. If your staff member did not tell you which day to expect your own payment at your one-week check in, please contact us via direct message through the STAR App.

When the 15th or 30th falls on a weekend or bank holiday, payments are made the following Monday/ the following business day.

Payments will be deposited to your reloadable debit card by 5pm Chicago time, on the day of payment.

No. We will never be able to see any of your Focus Blue transactions. We will also not be able to view the balance of your Focus Blue card.

No, but please contact UW study staff to discuss options if there is a problem with having it mailed to you.

Call US Bank directly at 877-474-0010 as soon as possible so that they can help you deactivate your lost card and get a replacement.

Yes, when you enroll you can let study staff know your preference. If you do choose to have us pay your cell provider directly, we will never request or require access to any account-level usernames or passwords or contract information. 

If your mailing address changes during the study, please contact the UW study staff as soon as possible. We will need to update your payment information including new mailing addresses and billing zip codes.

• Participants will download the STAR app onto their phone.
• Participants will be asked to share smartphone data, and do daily study-related tasks using our project app, called STAR.
• Study tasks are Daily and Monthly updates (surveys)
• You can take part in the study for up to 12 months.

As long as you are completing study tasks, the study can last up to 12 months

• The daily update should take about a minute or two to complete. 
• The length of the monthly update will vary depending how many new visited locations or contacts a participant has for that month, but it will likely take anywhere from 20-30 minutes to complete.

No, filling out your profile is not required since it is not a study task. However, you may find that filling out your profile helps you feel more engaged and comfortable as you use the app.

The items available in “Recovery Resources” on the main menu include media and music, guided relaxation, videos, a library with recommended articles and books, games and other interesting apps. In “Resources Near You”, you will find a links to several organizations that can help you find local resources in your own community. In addition, you could also create a list of reasons why you want to stay well in “My Motivations” on the resources page and watch your list grow as you continue your path to recovery.

You are not required to do so, but the resources were selected to be helpful.

This information can be found on this web page, and also in your copy of the consent form.

Your participation is totally voluntary, meaning that you do not have to complete study tasks if you do not want to. Just keep in mind that not completing the study tasks could reduce your payments and bonuses for the next month, and our team may need withdraw you from the study if you stop doing too many tasks.

Part of the purpose of this research project is to see how your interactions with different people in your life might affect your recovery success. As a reminder, any data you provide us will be kept completely confidential and we will never contact any of the phone contacts you share with us.

If you do not want us to collect text/call information from a specific contact or conversation, you should delete the specific call or text within 30 days of the call being made or the text being sent.   If you delete a call or text message on your phone within thirdy days of its occurrence, it will also be deleted from our study servers.

You can temporarily turn off your location data sharing by adjusting the app permissions under Research Study Settings.  However, doing so for 6 or more hours will reduce your next study payment by $5.

Additionally, you must not disable location sharing for more than 12 hours in a single 4-week period. Doing so may cause study staff to withdrawal you from the study with no option of reenrolling.

You can turn off data sharing in the app under Settings, then under Research Study Settings. The app will open the permissions page where you can toggle off sharing for any of these items.

Remember, if you turn off data sharing frequently or for long periods of time, study staff will reach out to let you know that you are not meeting minimum data sharing requirements. If you continue to turn off data sharing, you may be at risk of being withdrawn from the study.

Yes, if you are not providing enough data, study staff will reach out to you to notify you that you are not completing the minimum requirements. If you continue to not meet minimum data requirements, our team may need withdraw you from the study.

The STAR PIN is a four digit number that can protect you when you are logged into STAR. You can set a PIN in “Settings” which you can access from the menu. When you set a PIN and the app is closed completely and re-opened, you or anyone using your phone will need to enter this PIN to access STAR. Your PIN is not shared with us. It is saved locally on your phone. If you log out of STAR you will need to set a PIN again the next time you log in.

If you turn your phone off:

• Turning off a phone will stop collection of location data. It will also pause collection of phone call and text message log and text message content (however, this phone and text message data will be collected once the phone is turned back once the phone is turned back on).

If you turn your cellular data off:

• The app will continue to collect information even if cellular data is turned off.

The STAR app does not collect any information about your use of other apps. For a full list of what the app will track see “What will the app track?” above.

No one will be looking at or reading your text messages during the study. After your participation has ended, your data will be identified only by a random coded number for the computer programs to use during our data analysis. Protecting your privacy is our highest priority.

Protecting your privacy is our highest priority. None of your data on our secure server is linked to your real name; instead it is all identified by coded participant numbers, which is a 36-character random string of letters and numbers assigned to your data by your copy of the app.

Additionally, all of the information we collect in this study is protected by our Certificate of Confidentiality (CoC). Our CoC protects against the subpoena of any participants data and prevents researchers from having to share any identifiable health information without your permission. More information about the CoC can be found in the Consent Form for this study.

Only study staff will be able to access to the servers. The servers are protected by secure password authentication protocols as well as UW staff password authentication.

Some of your data could be accessed if someone was to gain access to your unlocked phone. It is also possible, although very unlikely, that someone could access your data if they hack into the secure server. However, hacking the server is extremely unlikely to happen and even if it did happen, we have protected your data as outlined above.

Yes, UW follows federal research guidelines for notifying participants in the unlikely event of a data breach.

There are no consequences if you “slip” back to drug use or relapse:

• Tracking slips are an important part of our research project. We ask you to report having slips honestly on your Daily updates, since we are trying to identify the feelings, events, and behavior patterns that predict future chances of having a slip.
• Reporting this information has no effect on your continued participation in the study or your payment.
• The study team will NOT voluntarily share this information with anyone else – not your doctors, not your family, not the police. Your reports go into a computer and we may not even learn about them until you have finished the study.
• The National Institutes of Health has provided us with a Certificate of Confidentiality to protect against the subpoena of your information by anyone.

Stopping your medication during the study will not affect your participation in any way, we just ask that you tell us the date when you stopped in the daily and monthly update surveys.

If you are unable to complete study tasks due to illness or injury, please contact our UW study staff as soon as possible so that we can discuss your options.

Yes, if you contact UW study staff we can pause your participation.

If you know that you will be going somewhere that will put you outside of WiFi/cellular access for an extended period of time, please contact UW study staff as soon as possible so that we can discuss your options.

The team will stop collecting your data, and you should contact us to discuss the next steps.

For non-urgent matters, send UW study staff a direct message through the STAR App; call us at (608) 262-1362; or email star@psych.wisc.edu.

If you need to talk to someone immediately, please contact your regular treatment provider or dial 911 if it is an emergency.