Improving Mental Health and Well-Being Via Awe Walks

NCT ID: NCT03550144

Last Updated: 2022-03-22

Study Results

Results pending

The study team has not published outcome measurements, participant flow, or safety data for this trial yet. Check back later for updates.

Basic Information

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Recruitment Status

COMPLETED

Clinical Phase

NA

Total Enrollment

60 participants

Study Classification

INTERVENTIONAL

Study Start Date

2016-12-05

Study Completion Date

2018-05-26

Brief Summary

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Awe is a powerful positive emotion that offsets negative emotion and fosters prosocial behavior. This study examined the effects of awe on health and well-being in healthy older adults. Half of the participants took a weekly "awe walk" while the other half took a weekly walk with no further instructions.

Detailed Description

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Awe fosters well-being and positive emotions that promote social relationships. Awe shifts attention from ourselves to the outside world and is associated with diminished self-focused attention. We aimed to increase awe in healthy older adults to test whether greater awe experience would lead to gains in other types of positive emotional experience and reductions in negative emotional experience.

Conditions

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Awe Compassion Anxiety

Study Design

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Allocation Method

RANDOMIZED

Intervention Model

PARALLEL

Primary Study Purpose

PREVENTION

Blinding Strategy

SINGLE

Participants

Study Groups

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Awe Walk Condition

Participants were instructed to take at least one (\~15 minute) walk per week for 8 consecutive weeks. Participants were told to seek the experience of feeling awe. Participants were told to keep a fairly light to moderate pace and were encouraged to walk alone and without interruption from a mobile device.

Group Type EXPERIMENTAL

Awe Walk

Intervention Type BEHAVIORAL

To examine the effect of weekly awe walks in cognitively healthy older adults.

Control Walk Condition

Participants were instructed to take at least one (\~15 minute) walk per week for 8 consecutive weeks. Participants were told to keep a fairly light to moderate pace and were encouraged to walk alone and without interruption from a mobile device.

Group Type ACTIVE_COMPARATOR

Control Walk

Intervention Type BEHAVIORAL

To examine the effect of weekly walks in cognitively healthy older adults.

Interventions

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Awe Walk

To examine the effect of weekly awe walks in cognitively healthy older adults.

Intervention Type BEHAVIORAL

Control Walk

To examine the effect of weekly walks in cognitively healthy older adults.

Intervention Type BEHAVIORAL

Eligibility Criteria

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Inclusion Criteria

* Stable medical condition for 3 months prior to screening
* Reliant informant with frequent contact with participant who is available to provide observations of participant
* Fluent in English or Spanish
* Age: 40 and above
* Able to complete baseline assessments
* Education or work history sufficient to exclude mental retardation
* Physically acceptable for this study as confirmed by medical history, physical exam, neurological exam and clinical tests

Exclusion Criteria

* Major memory concerns/diagnosed memory condition
* Korsakoff encephalopathy
* Active substance abuse
* Brain tumor
* Active neoplastic disease (skin tumors other than melanoma are not exclusionary)
* Parkinson's disease
* Multiple sclerosis (untreated)
* Sleep apnea
* History of clinically significant stroke
* Current evidence or history in the past 2 years of epilepsy, focal brain lesion, cancer, steroid use, or DSM-IV criteria for any major psychiatric disorder including psychosis, major depression, bipolar disorder, alcohol or substance abuse
* Blindness, deafness, language difficulties or any other disability which may prevent the participant from participating or cooperating in the protocol
Minimum Eligible Age

40 Years

Maximum Eligible Age

90 Years

Eligible Sex

ALL

Accepts Healthy Volunteers

Yes

Sponsors

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University of California, Berkeley

OTHER

Sponsor Role collaborator

University of California, San Francisco

OTHER

Sponsor Role lead

Responsible Party

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Responsibility Role SPONSOR

Principal Investigators

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Virginia E Sturm, PhD

Role: PRINCIPAL_INVESTIGATOR

University of California, San Francisco

Locations

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UCSF Memory and Aging Center

San Francisco, California, United States

Site Status

Countries

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United States

References

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Keltner D, Haidt J. Approaching awe, a moral, spiritual, and aesthetic emotion. Cogn Emot. 2003 Mar;17(2):297-314. doi: 10.1080/02699930302297.

Reference Type BACKGROUND
PMID: 29715721 (View on PubMed)

Kaup AR, Byers AL, Falvey C, Simonsick EM, Satterfield S, Ayonayon HN, Smagula SF, Rubin SM, Yaffe K. Trajectories of Depressive Symptoms in Older Adults and Risk of Dementia. JAMA Psychiatry. 2016 May 1;73(5):525-31. doi: 10.1001/jamapsychiatry.2016.0004.

Reference Type BACKGROUND
PMID: 26982217 (View on PubMed)

Williams JE, Paton CC, Siegler IC, Eigenbrodt ML, Nieto FJ, Tyroler HA. Anger proneness predicts coronary heart disease risk: prospective analysis from the atherosclerosis risk in communities (ARIC) study. Circulation. 2000 May 2;101(17):2034-9. doi: 10.1161/01.cir.101.17.2034.

Reference Type BACKGROUND
PMID: 10790343 (View on PubMed)

Fredrickson BL, Cohn MA, Coffey KA, Pek J, Finkel SM. Open hearts build lives: positive emotions, induced through loving-kindness meditation, build consequential personal resources. J Pers Soc Psychol. 2008 Nov;95(5):1045-1062. doi: 10.1037/a0013262.

Reference Type BACKGROUND
PMID: 18954193 (View on PubMed)

Stellar JE, John-Henderson N, Anderson CL, Gordon AM, McNeil GD, Keltner D. Positive affect and markers of inflammation: discrete positive emotions predict lower levels of inflammatory cytokines. Emotion. 2015 Apr;15(2):129-33. doi: 10.1037/emo0000033. Epub 2015 Jan 19.

Reference Type BACKGROUND
PMID: 25603133 (View on PubMed)

Diener E, Chan MY. Happy people live longer: Subjective well-being contributes to health and longevity. .Applied Psychology: Health and Well-Being 2011;3:1-43

Reference Type BACKGROUND

Levenson RW, Ascher E, Goodkind M, McCarthy M, Sturm V, Werner K. Chapter 25 Laboratory testing of emotion and frontal cortex. Handb Clin Neurol. 2008;88:489-98. doi: 10.1016/S0072-9752(07)88025-0. No abstract available.

Reference Type BACKGROUND
PMID: 18631708 (View on PubMed)

Emmons RA, McCullough ME. Counting blessings versus burdens: an experimental investigation of gratitude and subjective well-being in daily life. J Pers Soc Psychol. 2003 Feb;84(2):377-89. doi: 10.1037//0022-3514.84.2.377.

Reference Type BACKGROUND
PMID: 12585811 (View on PubMed)

Provided Documents

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Document Type: Study Protocol

View Document

Document Type: Statistical Analysis Plan

View Document

Related Links

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https://greatergood.berkeley.edu/

Greater Good Science Center

http://www.gbhi.org/

Global Brain Health Institute

Other Identifiers

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16-20001

Identifier Type: -

Identifier Source: org_study_id

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