A Smartphone Intervention for Relational and Mental Well Being

Depression Clinical Trial

Official title:

A Smartphone Intervention for Relational and Mental Well Being

Clinical Trial Details — Status: Completed

Administrative data

• NCT number: NCT04629755
• Other study ID #: STUDY00009897
• Status: Completed
• Phase: N/A
• Start date: April 4, 2020
• Est. completion date: August 3, 2020

Study information

• Verified date: November 2020
• Source: University of Washington
• Contact: n/a
• Is FDA regulated: No
• Study type: Interventional

Clinical Trial Summary

The primary aim of this study is to provide and evaluate a phone-based intervention to improve relational and mental well-being during the COVID-19 crisis. This information also will help us understand how individuals are responding to COVID-19 and have the potential to inform psychological and policy level interventions.

Description:

We conducted a randomized intervention trial of a mobile-based intervention that offered participants daily suggestions for 14 days on how to improve relational and mental well-being during the COVID-19 pandemic. A sample of 1765 adults residing in the United States participated in the study and were assigned to control or intervention conditions. To measure outcomes, all participants received a daily text message to their smartphones every evening for 28 days linking to a survey on relational and mental well-being. Participants also received a survey link on Days 56 and 72. Intervention participants received additional text messages in the mornings of Days 7 - 22 presenting the intervention suggestions.

Recruitment information / eligibility

• Status: Completed
• Enrollment: 1765
• Est. completion date: August 3, 2020
• Est. primary completion date: August 3, 2020
• Accepts healthy volunteers: Accepts Healthy Volunteers
• Gender: All
• Age group: 18 Years and older

Eligibility

Inclusion Criteria:

• Age 18+
• Resides in United States
• Possesses smartphone
• Willing to share phone number and email to researchers

Exclusion Criteria:

• None

Related Conditions & MeSH terms

• Covid19
• Depression
• Loneliness
• Relation, Interpersonal

Intervention

Behavioral:
• Intervention
The intervention was delivered via daily text messages to mobile phones during two weeks in the midst of the Covid-19 pandemic. Each message provided a link to a brief suggestion for an action or actions to take each day to improve relational closeness and well-being. Critical to the rationale for this intervention was the position that relationship science has developed key insights into what works and does not work to build and maintain closeness. These insights could be translated into brief and effective suggestions that individuals could implement daily, thereby quickly improving relational well-being and decreasing depression and loneliness at a critical time.

Locations

Country	Name	City	State
United States	University of Washington	Seattle	Washington

Sponsors (1)

Lead Sponsor	Collaborator
University of Washington

Country where clinical trial is conducted

United States, 

Outcome

Type	Measure	Description	Time frame	Safety issue
Primary	Change in depressed mood	Depressed mood was measured using the first two symptom items of the Patient Health Questionnaire-2, "I felt down, depressed, or hopeless today" and "I had little interest or pleasure in doing things today"; both were rated with a slider from 0 (None of the time) to 10 (All of the time) with anchors "Some of the time" and "Most of the time" spaced evenly between.	Measured every evening for 28 days; the first 6 days constituted baseline measurement; change was assessed over Days 7 - 28 with baseline as a covariate
Primary	Change in loneliness	Loneliness was measured using two items adapted from the UCLA Loneliness Scale, "I felt lonely today" and "I felt left out today" using a slider from 0 (Not at all) to 10 (Extremely).	Measured every evening for 28 days; the first 6 days constituted baseline measurement; change was assessed over Days 7 - 28 with baseline as a covariate
Primary	Change in relationship quality	Relationship quality was measured using two items, "I felt closer and more connected to important people in my life today" with a slider including 0 (Not at all), 5 (A moderate amount) and 10 (Very much so) and "I felt satisfied with my relationships today" with a slider from 0 (Not at all) to 10 (Extremely).	Measured every evening for 28 days; the first 6 days constituted baseline measurement; change was assessed over Days 7 - 28 with baseline as a covariate