A Randomized Pilot Trial Investigating a Novel Mobile Application for Practicing Exercises from ACT

NCT ID: NCT06647121

Last Updated: 2024-10-17

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

NOT_YET_RECRUITING

Clinical Phase

NA

Total Enrollment

60 participants

Study Classification

INTERVENTIONAL

Study Start Date

2024-10-31

Study Completion Date

2025-05-31

Brief Summary

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Mindfulness-related skills are associated with positive mental health outcomes and can be effectively taught through mobile apps. However, further research is needed to determine how best to support skill acquisition through the delivery of mindfulness exercises via smartphone apps. ACTaide is a novel mobile app designed to support home practice of mindfulness-related skills through exercises presented as stepwise annotated image sequences. The primary objective of this pilot and feasibility trial is to evaluate the feasibility of a prototype version of ACTaide. This two-arm parallel single-blinded (blinded participants) pilot trial will be conducted virtually with distressed Canadian adults. Participants (N = 60) will be recruited through the online platform Prolific. The intervention group will receive an Acceptance and Commitment Therapy (ACT) psychoeducational workshop and access to ACTaide for two weeks to support home practice of a mindfulness exercise from ACT: dropping anchor. The control group will receive the same psychoeducational workshop and access to a reminders-only mobile app to support their practice of the dropping anchor exercise. The main outcome measures will assess intervention feasibility, including adherence to the intervention, acceptability of the app, and retention rates. In addition, measures related to mindfulness-related skills and psychological distress will be collected. Prespecified progression criteria will be used to determine whether and how to proceed to a future trial designed to investigate the efficacy of ACTaide.

Detailed Description

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Conditions

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Psychological Distress

Study Design

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Allocation Method

RANDOMIZED

Intervention Model

PARALLEL

Primary Study Purpose

TREATMENT

Blinding Strategy

SINGLE

Participants
Participants will be blinded to condition assignment

Study Groups

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ACT Workshop Plus ACTaide Mobile App

In this condition, participants will attend a 1-hour virtual ACT psychoeducational workshop where they will learn about ACT, practice the dropping anchor exercise (with a guided image sequence), and learn how to use the ACTaide mobile app, which they will be asked to use to practice the dropping anchor exercise daily for two weeks. The main feature of the ACTaide app is the annotated image sequence to guide users through the steps of the exercise. The app also features customizable reminders notifications. Participants will receive three reminders per day encouraging them to practice the exercise.

Group Type EXPERIMENTAL

ACT Psychoeducational Workshop

Intervention Type BEHAVIORAL

The 1-hour ACT psychoeducational workshop will introduce participants to Acceptance and Commitment Therapy and include guided practice of the mindfulness exercise that they will be asked to practice for two weeks.

ACTaide Mobile App

Intervention Type BEHAVIORAL

The ACTaide mobile app is a novel app that is designed to support home practice of exercises from ACT via annotated image sequences and reminder notifications. A prototype version that features the dropping anchor mindfulness exercise will be investigated in this study.

ACT Workshop Plus Reminders-only Mobile App

In this condition, participants will attend a 1-hour virtual ACT psychoeducational workshop where they will learn about ACT, practice the dropping anchor exercise (without a guided image sequence), and learn how to use the reminders-only mobile app, which they will be asked to use to practice the dropping anchor exercise daily for two weeks. This app will not include the annotated image sequence from ACTaide and instead will only include customizable reminders notifications. Participants will receive three reminders per day encouraging them to practice the exercise.

Group Type ACTIVE_COMPARATOR

ACT Psychoeducational Workshop

Intervention Type BEHAVIORAL

The 1-hour ACT psychoeducational workshop will introduce participants to Acceptance and Commitment Therapy and include guided practice of the mindfulness exercise that they will be asked to practice for two weeks.

Reminders-only mobile app

Intervention Type BEHAVIORAL

This app will include only reminder notifications to encourage home practice of the dropping anchor mindfulness exercise in the comparator condition. It will not include the annotated image sequence for the exercise (i.e., the primary feature of the ACTaide app to be investigated in the intervention condition).

Interventions

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ACT Psychoeducational Workshop

The 1-hour ACT psychoeducational workshop will introduce participants to Acceptance and Commitment Therapy and include guided practice of the mindfulness exercise that they will be asked to practice for two weeks.

Intervention Type BEHAVIORAL

ACTaide Mobile App

The ACTaide mobile app is a novel app that is designed to support home practice of exercises from ACT via annotated image sequences and reminder notifications. A prototype version that features the dropping anchor mindfulness exercise will be investigated in this study.

Intervention Type BEHAVIORAL

Reminders-only mobile app

This app will include only reminder notifications to encourage home practice of the dropping anchor mindfulness exercise in the comparator condition. It will not include the annotated image sequence for the exercise (i.e., the primary feature of the ACTaide app to be investigated in the intervention condition).

Intervention Type BEHAVIORAL

Eligibility Criteria

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Inclusion Criteria

1. be at least 18 years old;
2. be fluent in English;
3. own a smartphone with a data plan;
4. report at least moderate psychological distress as measured by the 21-item Depression Anxiety Stress Scales (DASS-21; i.e., overall score of at least 43); and
5. report at least moderate motivation to learn a new psychotherapeutic exercise for navigating psychological distress (i.e., at least 6 out of 10).

Exclusion Criteria

Due to the limited psychotherapeutic scope of the intervention, individuals were ineligible if they self-reported extremely severe psychological distress (i.e., an overall score of 82 or higher on the DASS-21) or a diagnosis of a severe mental illness (i.e., bipolar disorder, psychosis, schizophrenia, borderline personality disorder).
Minimum Eligible Age

18 Years

Eligible Sex

ALL

Accepts Healthy Volunteers

No

Sponsors

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Barbel Knauper

OTHER

Sponsor Role lead

Responsible Party

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Barbel Knauper

James McGill Professor of Health Psychology

Responsibility Role SPONSOR_INVESTIGATOR

Principal Investigators

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Bärbel Knäuper, PhD

Role: PRINCIPAL_INVESTIGATOR

McGill University

Locations

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McGill University

Montreal, Quebec, Canada

Site Status

Countries

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Canada

Central Contacts

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Aidan Smyth, MSc

Role: CONTACT

613-200-6806

Facility Contacts

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Aidan Smyth, MSc

Role: primary

613-200-6806

References

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Di Sante J, Frayn M, Angelescu A, Knauper B. Proof-of-concept testing of a brief virtual ACT workshop for emotional eating. Appetite. 2024 Aug 1;199:107386. doi: 10.1016/j.appet.2024.107386. Epub 2024 Apr 30.

Reference Type BACKGROUND
PMID: 38692511 (View on PubMed)

Dochat C, Wooldridge JS, Herbert MS, Lee MW, Afari N. Single-Session Acceptance and Commitment Therapy (ACT) Interventions for Patients with Chronic Health Conditions: A Systematic Review and Meta-Analysis. J Contextual Behav Sci. 2021 Apr;20:52-69. doi: 10.1016/j.jcbs.2021.03.003. Epub 2021 Mar 6.

Reference Type BACKGROUND
PMID: 33868913 (View on PubMed)

Eldridge SM, Chan CL, Campbell MJ, Bond CM, Hopewell S, Thabane L, Lancaster GA; PAFS consensus group. CONSORT 2010 statement: extension to randomised pilot and feasibility trials. BMJ. 2016 Oct 24;355:i5239. doi: 10.1136/bmj.i5239.

Reference Type BACKGROUND
PMID: 27777223 (View on PubMed)

Frayn M, Khanyari S, Knauper B. A 1-day acceptance and commitment therapy workshop leads to reductions in emotional eating in adults. Eat Weight Disord. 2020 Oct;25(5):1399-1411. doi: 10.1007/s40519-019-00778-6. Epub 2019 Sep 20.

Reference Type BACKGROUND
PMID: 31541426 (View on PubMed)

Kazdin AE. Annual Research Review: Expanding mental health services through novel models of intervention delivery. J Child Psychol Psychiatry. 2019 Apr;60(4):455-472. doi: 10.1111/jcpp.12937. Epub 2018 Jun 13.

Reference Type BACKGROUND
PMID: 29900543 (View on PubMed)

Kraemer HC, Mintz J, Noda A, Tinklenberg J, Yesavage JA. Caution regarding the use of pilot studies to guide power calculations for study proposals. Arch Gen Psychiatry. 2006 May;63(5):484-9. doi: 10.1001/archpsyc.63.5.484.

Reference Type BACKGROUND
PMID: 16651505 (View on PubMed)

Lewis M, Bromley K, Sutton CJ, McCray G, Myers HL, Lancaster GA. Determining sample size for progression criteria for pragmatic pilot RCTs: the hypothesis test strikes back! Pilot Feasibility Stud. 2021 Feb 3;7(1):40. doi: 10.1186/s40814-021-00770-x.

Reference Type BACKGROUND
PMID: 33536076 (View on PubMed)

Linardon J, Fuller-Tyszkiewicz M. Attrition and adherence in smartphone-delivered interventions for mental health problems: A systematic and meta-analytic review. J Consult Clin Psychol. 2020 Jan;88(1):1-13. doi: 10.1037/ccp0000459. Epub 2019 Nov 7.

Reference Type BACKGROUND
PMID: 31697093 (View on PubMed)

Linardon J, Torous J, Firth J, Cuijpers P, Messer M, Fuller-Tyszkiewicz M. Current evidence on the efficacy of mental health smartphone apps for symptoms of depression and anxiety. A meta-analysis of 176 randomized controlled trials. World Psychiatry. 2024 Feb;23(1):139-149. doi: 10.1002/wps.21183.

Reference Type BACKGROUND
PMID: 38214614 (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)

Patel V, Maj M, Flisher AJ, De Silva MJ, Koschorke M, Prince M; WPA Zonal and Member Society Representatives. Reducing the treatment gap for mental disorders: a WPA survey. World Psychiatry. 2010 Oct;9(3):169-76. doi: 10.1002/j.2051-5545.2010.tb00305.x.

Reference Type BACKGROUND
PMID: 20975864 (View on PubMed)

Ronk FR, Korman JR, Hooke GR, Page AC. Assessing clinical significance of treatment outcomes using the DASS-21. Psychol Assess. 2013 Dec;25(4):1103-10. doi: 10.1037/a0033100. Epub 2013 Jun 3.

Reference Type BACKGROUND
PMID: 23730826 (View on PubMed)

Zhou L, Bao J, Setiawan IMA, Saptono A, Parmanto B. The mHealth App Usability Questionnaire (MAUQ): Development and Validation Study. JMIR Mhealth Uhealth. 2019 Apr 11;7(4):e11500. doi: 10.2196/11500.

Reference Type BACKGROUND
PMID: 30973342 (View on PubMed)

Other Identifiers

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REB# 23-08-055

Identifier Type: -

Identifier Source: org_study_id

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