Ignite Creation Date:
2024-05-06 @ 2:41 PM
Last Modification Date:
2024-10-26 @ 1:35 PM
Study NCT ID:
NCT04398277
Status:
UNKNOWN
Last Update Posted:
2020-05-21
First Post:
2020-05-20
Brief Title:
A Daily Coping Toolkit for Medical Personnel and First-Responders During COVID-19 Pandemic
Sponsor:
Kent State University
Organization:
Kent State University
Study Overview
Official Title:
A Daily Coping Toolkit for Medical Personnel and First-Responders During the COVID-19 Pandemic
Status:
UNKNOWN
Status Verified Date:
2020-05
Last Known Status:
RECRUITING
Delayed Posting:
No
If Stopped, Why?:
Not Stopped
Has Expanded Access:
False
If Expanded Access, NCT#:
N/A
Has Expanded Access, NCT# Status:
N/A
Acronym:
None
Brief Summary:
During the current COVID-19 Pandemic all communities are relying heavily on medical personnel and first-responders to maintain high levels of psychological and occupational functioning However during times of persistent high levels of stress many individuals experience depletion in psychological resources suffering intense distress that can make daily occupational and interpersonal functioning difficult In order to assist with this immense challenge this research team has developed a brief daily intervention based on decades of stress and trauma research that may help to support psychological health in individuals on the frontlines who are most essential to society Considerable evidence supports the role of attention to and conceptualization of emotional experience in psychological resilience This project tests a highly innovative combination of interventions targeting these processes in a brief daily activity The primary project aim is to investigate the Daily Coping Toolkit for medical personnel and first responders to determine efficacy over time to test relative dosing and to explicate the underlying therapeutic processes The toolkit consists of 3 activities administered one time each day taking minutes to complete and will be administered to n1000 personnel Data analysis will test the impact of the toolkit on momentary affective processes and on symptoms and wellbeing over 9 months The impact of this research will be evidence to support the further use of this novel tool to assist essential front-line personnel during this ongoing crisis helping to mitigate the psychological toll and also support occupational functioning now and in the future
Detailed Description:
During times of persistent high levels of stress many individuals experience depletion in psychological resources suffering intense distress that can make daily occupational and interpersonal functioning difficult In order to assist during this exceptionally challenging crisis this research team has developed a brief daily intervention based on decades of stress and trauma research that may help to support psychological health and coping resources in individuals on the frontlines medical personnel and first-responders These are individuals who are most essential to society in this difficult time Although hospitals fire and police departments have existing support resources in place they are either based on traditional models of treatment or consist of online peer-support or wellness applications All facets of existing supportinterventions have considerable utility but it is not clear that these resources are designed to address the frequent and ongoing coping demands of this crisis across a broad swath of individuals In particular traditional psychotherapy models are unlikely to be successful due to very real time constraints of this population at this time Moreover several decades of research would argue that traditional psychotherapy is unlikely to be needed by most individuals given prototypical patterns of adjustment across a range of aversive events including prior pandemics SARS Bonanno et al 2008 However even resilient individuals will struggle with distress and some symptoms Prior research has suggested that specific emotion processing patterns can support resilient outcomes over the long-term and thus frontline workers may benefit from an intervention that leverages this existing knowledge to facilitate adaptive emotion regulatory processing and elevate well-being during this crisis
The proposed project aims to investigate a novel intervention A Daily Coping Toolkit administered via online application that consists of 3 activities targeting adaptive emotional attention and expression administered one time each day only 4-10 minutes in duration daily The Toolkit is both practically feasible given the demands and current burden on the target population as well as highly consistent with existing evidence Moreover the Toolkit is not likely to conflict with other online tools or with traditional psychotherapy and hence can be practically applied across a broad swath of individuals in need The primary project aim is to test the Daily Coping Toolkit on a broader population of medical personnel and first responders to determine efficacy over time to test relative dosing and to explicate the underlying therapeutic processes The potential impact of this research will be evidence to support the further use of this novel tool to assist essential front-line personnel during this ongoing crisis This may assist with mitigating the psychological toll of this crisis and also support the occupational functioning of medical personnel and first responders thus contributing indirectly to improved patient outcomes Finally knowledge gained from this research will support the further development of this tool to support individuals facing future challenging events and circumstances
Participants n1000 medical personnel and first responders to test the efficacy of the Daily Coping Toolkit
Procedure Interested individuals will go to wwwtinyurlcomdailycopingtoolkit for additional information including the informed consent Once consent is provided individuals complete a brief assessment of current symptoms well-being and psychiatrictreatment history and then receive instructions to download the research application ExpiWell wwwexpiwellcom a secure platform that operates on iosAndroid devices upon which we administer the Toolkit Once downloaded participants are randomized to a high versus low treatment condition and will receive daily prompts to complete the intervention After 7 days they complete a brief assessment of symptoms well-being and acceptability of the intervention and consent again for continuation in the research Individuals can continue to use the application without consenting further if they choose and their data will not be accessible to researchers For those that do consent follow-up assessments occur at 26 and 9 months symptoms and well-being
Daily Coping Toolkit Intervention Participants are prompted one time daily with 1-2 reminders to complete the intervention which consists of the following three parts Randomization to high versus low condition is maintained for the first 7 days only in order to test for relative dose effects see 3 below
1 Emotion Labelling Activity Participants rate 10 discrete negative and positive emotional words on a likert scale 0-4 Precise labelling of emotional experience can serve as a form of implicit emotion regulation and has been associated with healthy psychophysiological and behavioral adaptation in a range of community and clinical samples
2 Expressive Writing and Self Distancing Activity Participants respond to an open-ended prompt to write about their day in an open text box in response to the prompt What was today like After this is completed they are prompted that if the experience was very challenging to revisit that experience in their mind by taking a fly on the wall perspective Kross Ayduk 2016 see figure for instructions Persistent evidence has indicated that expressive writing is an effective coping tool In addition research has identified the ways in which specific word use can facilitate healthy emotional processing during stress There is also significant research demonstrating that shifting perspective about negative emotional experiences can facilitate a healthier distance from it
3 Positive Emotion Generation Activity 1 v 2 prompts Participants are prompted to take a deep breath and then respond to 1 or 2 of 8 possible prompts in which they can generate positive emotions In response to each they are asked to describe their thoughts or memories in open-ended text box Note For the first 7 days participants are randomized to either respond to one low dose or two high dose prompts so as to test the relative efficacy of the dose After 8 days all participants default to the higher dose of 2 prompts Prompts are designed to elicit gratitude positive social experiences amusing memories kind acts they committed satisfactionpride with accomplishments positive future focus and love for close others Prior research has demonstrated that positive emotions generated during highly stressful events predict resilience and improved emotion regulation and coping Moreover positive emotion generation has been shown broadly to predict increased psychological wellbeing
The proposed project aims to investigate a novel intervention A Daily Coping Toolkit administered via online application that consists of 3 activities targeting adaptive emotional attention and expression administered one time each day only 4-10 minutes in duration daily The Toolkit is both practically feasible given the demands and current burden on the target population as well as highly consistent with existing evidence Moreover the Toolkit is not likely to conflict with other online tools or with traditional psychotherapy and hence can be practically applied across a broad swath of individuals in need The primary project aim is to test the Daily Coping Toolkit on a broader population of medical personnel and first responders to determine efficacy over time to test relative dosing and to explicate the underlying therapeutic processes The potential impact of this research will be evidence to support the further use of this novel tool to assist essential front-line personnel during this ongoing crisis This may assist with mitigating the psychological toll of this crisis and also support the occupational functioning of medical personnel and first responders thus contributing indirectly to improved patient outcomes Finally knowledge gained from this research will support the further development of this tool to support individuals facing future challenging events and circumstances
Participants n1000 medical personnel and first responders to test the efficacy of the Daily Coping Toolkit
Procedure Interested individuals will go to wwwtinyurlcomdailycopingtoolkit for additional information including the informed consent Once consent is provided individuals complete a brief assessment of current symptoms well-being and psychiatrictreatment history and then receive instructions to download the research application ExpiWell wwwexpiwellcom a secure platform that operates on iosAndroid devices upon which we administer the Toolkit Once downloaded participants are randomized to a high versus low treatment condition and will receive daily prompts to complete the intervention After 7 days they complete a brief assessment of symptoms well-being and acceptability of the intervention and consent again for continuation in the research Individuals can continue to use the application without consenting further if they choose and their data will not be accessible to researchers For those that do consent follow-up assessments occur at 26 and 9 months symptoms and well-being
Daily Coping Toolkit Intervention Participants are prompted one time daily with 1-2 reminders to complete the intervention which consists of the following three parts Randomization to high versus low condition is maintained for the first 7 days only in order to test for relative dose effects see 3 below
1 Emotion Labelling Activity Participants rate 10 discrete negative and positive emotional words on a likert scale 0-4 Precise labelling of emotional experience can serve as a form of implicit emotion regulation and has been associated with healthy psychophysiological and behavioral adaptation in a range of community and clinical samples
2 Expressive Writing and Self Distancing Activity Participants respond to an open-ended prompt to write about their day in an open text box in response to the prompt What was today like After this is completed they are prompted that if the experience was very challenging to revisit that experience in their mind by taking a fly on the wall perspective Kross Ayduk 2016 see figure for instructions Persistent evidence has indicated that expressive writing is an effective coping tool In addition research has identified the ways in which specific word use can facilitate healthy emotional processing during stress There is also significant research demonstrating that shifting perspective about negative emotional experiences can facilitate a healthier distance from it
3 Positive Emotion Generation Activity 1 v 2 prompts Participants are prompted to take a deep breath and then respond to 1 or 2 of 8 possible prompts in which they can generate positive emotions In response to each they are asked to describe their thoughts or memories in open-ended text box Note For the first 7 days participants are randomized to either respond to one low dose or two high dose prompts so as to test the relative efficacy of the dose After 8 days all participants default to the higher dose of 2 prompts Prompts are designed to elicit gratitude positive social experiences amusing memories kind acts they committed satisfactionpride with accomplishments positive future focus and love for close others Prior research has demonstrated that positive emotions generated during highly stressful events predict resilience and improved emotion regulation and coping Moreover positive emotion generation has been shown broadly to predict increased psychological wellbeing
Study Oversight
Has Oversight DMC:
None
Is a FDA Regulated Drug?:
False
Is a FDA Regulated Device?:
False
Is an Unapproved Device?:
None
Is a PPSD?:
None
Is a US Export?:
None
Is an FDA AA801 Violation?:
None