Mindfulness-based "STOP (Stop, Take a Breath, Observe, Proceed) Touching Your Face" Intervention

NCT ID: NCT04330352

Last Updated: 2020-09-30

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

1094 participants

Study Classification

INTERVENTIONAL

Study Start Date

2020-04-02

Study Completion Date

2020-07-02

Brief Summary

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This single-blind, randomized, controlled, trial is to assess the efficasy of a brief mindfulness-based "STOP touching your face" training program to reduce or avoid face-touching to low people's chances of catching infectious diseases like COVID-19.

Detailed Description

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Background Face-touching behavior often happens frequently and automatically, and poses potential risk for spreading infectious disease. Mindfulness-based interventions (MBIs) have shown its efficacy in the treatment of behavior disorders. This study aims to evaluate an online mindfulness-based brief intervention skill named "STOP (Stop, Take a Breath, Observe, Proceed) touching your face" in reducing face-touching behavior.

Methods This will be a single-blind, randomized, controlled, trial. We will recruit 1,000 participants, and will randomize and allocate participants 1:1 to the "STOP touching your face" intervention group (n=500) and the control group (n=500). All participants will be asked to monitor and record their face-touching behavior. The intervention group will receive the brief online mindfulness-based "STOP touching your face" program, and the control group will receive control intervention. Primary outcome will be the efficacy of short-term mindfulness-based "STOP touching your face" intervention for reducing the frequency of face-touching. The secondary outcomes will be the reduction of the duration of face-touching after intervention; the correlation between the psychological traits of mindfulness and face-touching behavior; and the differences of face-touching behavior between left-handers and right-handers. We will recruit 1000 participants from April to June 2020 or until the recruitment process is complete. The follow-up will be completed in June 2020. We expect all trial results to be available by the end of June 2020.

Discussion This is the first RCT to evaluate the efficacy of brief mindfulness intervention to reduce face-touching behavior. We expect that "STOP touching your face" has a significantly greater reduction the frequency of face-touching behavior than the control intervention. As "STOP touching your face" is a brief and simple skill, the public health impact of its expansion world-wide could be enormous, helping us to manage any face-touching spread infectious diseases, like Coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19).

Conditions

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Face-touching Behavior

Study Design

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Allocation Method

RANDOMIZED

Intervention Model

PARALLEL

Primary Study Purpose

TREATMENT

Blinding Strategy

SINGLE

Outcome Assessors

Study Groups

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Mindfulness-based "STOP touching your face" intervention

Eligibility participants who are allocated to the intervention group will be required to find a time to monitor and record their behavior of hand-to-face contacts, including the frequency and length (in second) of face-touching in any of the mucosal area (eyes, nose, mouth) and nonmucosal area (ears, cheeks, chin, neck, forehead, hair) during a 60-minute period. Then, they will receive the online mindfulness-based "STOP touching your face" program. Each participant will be required to practice this technique until they feel confident and natural. The systematic review showed the efficacy of single session of brief MBIs, the average length was 15 minutes, ranged from less than 5 to 25 min. Thus, the requirement practice time will be at least 15 minutes (excluding the time of reading the text and the first time of listening to the audio). Later (at least 1-hour interval), they will be asked to self-monitor and report their one-hour face-touching behavior again.

Group Type EXPERIMENTAL

Mindfulness-based "STOP touching your face" practice

Intervention Type BEHAVIORAL

1\. Remind yourself to STOP. Whatever you are doing in this moment (e.g. touching your month, pinching your nose, rubbing your eyes, resting your chin on your hands), pause for a minute. 2. Take a deep breath. This reconnects you with your body. Pay attention to your breathing and just allow yourself to continue to breathe normally and naturally. 3. Observe what is happening for you in this moment-including thoughts, feelings, and emotions (e.g. feel distracted, anxious or nervous?). What do you notice in your body (e.g. feel itchy or tingling on any part of your face)? You can be aware of anything: posture, sensations, tension in your body, or, once again, your breath. You might notice the sound around you. You might even notice your thoughts or emotions. 4. Proceed with whatever you were doing before you came to a STOP or something that you want to do in the moment (e.g. proceed with touching your face, or stop face-touching and take an alternative behavior).

Contron information intervention

Participants who allocate to the control group will only receive information to thank them and encourage them to complete the study. They will receive "STOP touching your face" program after the end of this study. The repeat measurement of the face-touching behavior will be in at least 1-hour interval.

Group Type NO_INTERVENTION

No interventions assigned to this group

Interventions

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Mindfulness-based "STOP touching your face" practice

1\. Remind yourself to STOP. Whatever you are doing in this moment (e.g. touching your month, pinching your nose, rubbing your eyes, resting your chin on your hands), pause for a minute. 2. Take a deep breath. This reconnects you with your body. Pay attention to your breathing and just allow yourself to continue to breathe normally and naturally. 3. Observe what is happening for you in this moment-including thoughts, feelings, and emotions (e.g. feel distracted, anxious or nervous?). What do you notice in your body (e.g. feel itchy or tingling on any part of your face)? You can be aware of anything: posture, sensations, tension in your body, or, once again, your breath. You might notice the sound around you. You might even notice your thoughts or emotions. 4. Proceed with whatever you were doing before you came to a STOP or something that you want to do in the moment (e.g. proceed with touching your face, or stop face-touching and take an alternative behavior).

Intervention Type BEHAVIORAL

Eligibility Criteria

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Inclusion Criteria

1. 18 years of age or older
2. Being able to access online services
3. Being able to read and write in Chinese
4. Expressing an interest in participant this study
5. Willing to provide informed consent to participate in the study

Exclusion Criteria

1. Under 18 years of age
2. Unable to access online services
3. Unable to read and write in Chinese
Minimum Eligible Age

18 Years

Eligible Sex

ALL

Accepts Healthy Volunteers

Yes

Sponsors

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Sir Run Run Shaw Hospital

OTHER

Sponsor Role lead

Responsible Party

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Yanhui Liao

Psychiatrist

Responsibility Role PRINCIPAL_INVESTIGATOR

Locations

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Yanhui Liao

Hangzhou, Zhejiang, China

Site Status

Countries

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China

References

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Tang J, Wang L, Luo T, Wu S, Wu Z, Chen J, Pan C, Wang Y, Liu Y, Luo Q, Guo X, Xie L, Zhou J, Sun Y, Chen W, Liao Y. Effectiveness of a Brief Mindfulness-Based Intervention of "STOP touching your face" During the COVID-19 Pandemic: a Randomized Controlled Trial. Mindfulness (N Y). 2022;13(12):3123-3133. doi: 10.1007/s12671-022-02019-x. Epub 2022 Nov 9.

Reference Type DERIVED
PMID: 36408118 (View on PubMed)

Liao Y, Wang L, Luo T, Wu S, Wu Z, Chen J, Pan C, Wang Y, Liu Y, Luo Q, Guo X, Xie L, Zhou J, Chen W, Tang J. Brief mindfulness-based intervention of 'STOP (Stop, Take a Breath, Observe, Proceed) touching your face': a study protocol of a randomised controlled trial. BMJ Open. 2020 Nov 24;10(11):e041364. doi: 10.1136/bmjopen-2020-041364.

Reference Type DERIVED
PMID: 33234653 (View on PubMed)

Other Identifiers

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2020S001

Identifier Type: -

Identifier Source: org_study_id