Effectiveness of a Self-guided Mobile Application in Improving Obsessive Compulsive Disorder Symptoms

NCT ID: NCT06202677

Last Updated: 2024-07-01

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

ACTIVE_NOT_RECRUITING

Clinical Phase

NA

Total Enrollment

225 participants

Study Classification

INTERVENTIONAL

Study Start Date

2024-01-01

Study Completion Date

2024-07-07

Brief Summary

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Obsessive Compulsive Disorder (OCD) is a significant mental health problem worldwide. OCD typically begins in young adulthood, and without adequate intervention, often takes a chronic course. Individuals with OCD may suffer impaired relationships, and ability to engage in leisure activities, study or work. Thus, prevention efforts are crucial to target OCD symptoms before they worsen.

The goal of this randomized-controlled trial (RCT) is to evaluate the effectiveness of a self-guided OCD program on a mobile phone application in young adults with subclinical OCD symptoms.

Hypothesis 1a: The intervention group will report significantly lower OCD symptoms (primary measure) at post-intervention and 1-month follow-up compared to the control group.

Hypothesis 1b. The intervention group will report significantly lower depression, anxiety and stress symptoms (secondary measure) at post-intervention and 1-month follow-up compared to the control group.

Hypothesis 2. Perfectionism will moderate the expected relationship between the OCD intervention and the reduction of scores on both primary and secondary measures, i.e. individuals with lower levels of perfectionism will benefit more from the OCD intervention than those with higher levels of perfectionism.

Detailed Description

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Procedure:

Interested individuals will sign up for the study via an online survey link on the university's recruitment sites. They will first complete a pre-screening questionnaire on Qualtrics and be assessed on their eligibility based on the inclusion criteria (able to read and understand English, being a student from the National University of Singapore aged 18 to 30, and presenting with moderate subclinical OCD). Eligible participants read the Participation Information Sheet, and after providing informed consent, complete measures on depression, stress, anxiety, and perfectionism. They will also provide their demographic information (age, gender).

Next, participants are randomized to either the intervention or active control condition using simple randomization procedures and guided to download the mobile application on their mobile phone. Participants in the intervention group will undergo 8 days of the OCD learning program, while participants in the active waitlist control group will undergo 8 days of the cooperation learning program. Participation in each program is estimated to be about five minutes per day.

Upon completion of the 8-day program, participants will receive a survey link to complete measures on OCD, depression, anxiety, stress, and the App Engagement Scale. One month upon completion of the 8-day program, participants will be sent a survey link to the same survey, without the App Engagement Scale. They will also be briefed with an information sheet explaining the main purposes of the study. All participants will be given access to all well-being programs available on the app at the end of the study for their personal use. They will be reimbursed with either course credits or a small monetary fee for their participation in the study. Participants who chose to volunteer their participation will not be reimbursed.

Data screening:

Ineligible individuals, incomplete responses, long strings of identical responses, and outliers with data 3 standard deviations from the mean will be excluded from data analyses. Submissions with an overall response time of below 660s will be flagged.

Preliminary Analyses Statistical analyses will be done using SPSS Version 26.0. First, data will be visually inspected using scatterplots and histograms to examine the distribution of data and identify significant outliers. Analyses will be conducted with and without outliers to determine if outliers impact the results significantly. If results are significantly impacted by outliers, they will be will be replaced with the next closest non-outlying data point.

Data will be screened for normality and compliance with statistical assumptions. Independent t-tests and chi-square tests will examine the differences between the 2 conditions on all demographic and dependent variables.

Intent-to-treat analyses will be conducted to address missing data on questionnaires, by carrying forward the participants' last reported score. Missing data on the AES were accounted for using mean substitution.

Main analyses:

Assumptions for ANCOVA will first be conducted. For outcome measures where assumptions were violated, one-way ANOVA using difference scores. Thereafter, ANCOVA will be conducted to determine if changes in outcome measures at post-intervention and follow-up were significantly different between the two conditions. Baseline scores of the relevant outcome measure will be used as the covariate.

Moderation analyses:

Hayes PROCESS macro version 4.6 Model 1 will be used to conduct regression analysis between perfectionism and both primary and secondary measures. Confidence intervals will be set at 95% and bootstrapping samples = 5000.

Conditions

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Obsessive-Compulsive Disorder

Study Design

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Allocation Method

RANDOMIZED

Intervention Model

FACTORIAL

Primary Study Purpose

SUPPORTIVE_CARE

Blinding Strategy

SINGLE

Participants

Study Groups

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Experimental: Intervention group: Obsessive Compulsive Disorder Program

Participants will complete an 8-day self-guided programme on obsessive compulsive disorder delivered via a mobile phone application with daily exercises guided by cognitive-behavioural and exposure and response prevention principles.

Group Type EXPERIMENTAL

Self-guided program on obsessive compulsive disorder

Intervention Type DEVICE

This is an 8-day program that provides psychoeducational on what obsessions and compulsions are, and how to identify them. Subsequently, through a series of content learning and daily exercises that increase in difficulty, participants are guided to conduct exposure exercises while tolerating distress and refraining from compulsions. Participants are also guided to set goals and type down the specific content of their intrusive thoughts and compulsive behaviours to keep track of their progress. Each session of the program is estimated to be approximately 5 minutes.

Control group

Participants will complete an 8-day self-guided programme on cooperation delivered via a mobile phone application with daily exercises that differ from the intervention group in terms of content but are comparable in terms of duration.

Group Type ACTIVE_COMPARATOR

Self-guided program on cooperation

Intervention Type DEVICE

This 8-day program on cooperation aims to improve participants' collaborative skills and interpersonal wellness through a series of content learning and practice exercises. The time and duration of this program is matched to the obsessive compulsive disorder program to ensure that participants spend a similar amount of time and effort across both the intervention and active control conditions.

Interventions

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Self-guided program on obsessive compulsive disorder

This is an 8-day program that provides psychoeducational on what obsessions and compulsions are, and how to identify them. Subsequently, through a series of content learning and daily exercises that increase in difficulty, participants are guided to conduct exposure exercises while tolerating distress and refraining from compulsions. Participants are also guided to set goals and type down the specific content of their intrusive thoughts and compulsive behaviours to keep track of their progress. Each session of the program is estimated to be approximately 5 minutes.

Intervention Type DEVICE

Self-guided program on cooperation

This 8-day program on cooperation aims to improve participants' collaborative skills and interpersonal wellness through a series of content learning and practice exercises. The time and duration of this program is matched to the obsessive compulsive disorder program to ensure that participants spend a similar amount of time and effort across both the intervention and active control conditions.

Intervention Type DEVICE

Eligibility Criteria

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Inclusion Criteria

* Age 18-30 mild, subclinical OCD (OCI-R score of 0 to 20) Good command of the English language Owns a mobile phone for downloading the mobile application for use in the study's intervention Singaporean or Permanent Resident of Singapore

Exclusion Criteria

* None
Minimum Eligible Age

18 Years

Maximum Eligible Age

30 Years

Eligible Sex

ALL

Accepts Healthy Volunteers

Yes

Sponsors

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Intellect Pte. Ltd.

INDUSTRY

Sponsor Role collaborator

National University of Singapore

OTHER

Sponsor Role lead

Responsible Party

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Dr Oliver Suendermann

Adjunct Assistant Professor

Responsibility Role PRINCIPAL_INVESTIGATOR

Principal Investigators

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Stephanie Lee, Ph.D

Role: PRINCIPAL_INVESTIGATOR

National University of Singapore

Locations

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National University of Singapore

Singapore, , Singapore

Site Status

Countries

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Singapore

References

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Bakker D, Rickard N. Engagement in mobile phone app for self-monitoring of emotional wellbeing predicts changes in mental health: MoodPrism. J Affect Disord. 2018 Feb;227:432-442. doi: 10.1016/j.jad.2017.11.016. Epub 2017 Nov 9.

Reference Type BACKGROUND
PMID: 29154165 (View on PubMed)

Lovibond PF, Lovibond SH. The structure of negative emotional states: comparison of the Depression Anxiety Stress Scales (DASS) with the Beck Depression and Anxiety Inventories. Behav Res Ther. 1995 Mar;33(3):335-43. doi: 10.1016/0005-7967(94)00075-u.

Reference Type BACKGROUND
PMID: 7726811 (View on PubMed)

Foa EB, Huppert JD, Leiberg S, Langner R, Kichic R, Hajcak G, Salkovskis PM. The Obsessive-Compulsive Inventory: development and validation of a short version. Psychol Assess. 2002 Dec;14(4):485-96.

Reference Type BACKGROUND
PMID: 12501574 (View on PubMed)

Frost, R. O., Marten, P., Lahart, C., & Rosenblate, R. The dimensions of perfectionism. Cognitive Therapy and Research. 1990; 14(5): 449-468.

Reference Type BACKGROUND

Lee Yoon Li M, Lee Si Min S, Sundermann O. Efficacy of the mHealth App Intellect in Improving Subclinical Obsessive-Compulsive Disorder in University Students: Randomized Controlled Trial With a 4-Week Follow-Up. JMIR Mhealth Uhealth. 2024 Dec 16;12:e63316. doi: 10.2196/63316.

Reference Type DERIVED
PMID: 39680884 (View on PubMed)

Other Identifiers

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NUS-IRB-2023-444

Identifier Type: -

Identifier Source: org_study_id

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