The Effectiveness of an Online Self-Delivered Death Anxiety Intervention

NCT ID: NCT06801132

Last Updated: 2025-02-19

Basic Information

• Recruitment Status: ENROLLING_BY_INVITATION
• Clinical Phase: NA
• Total Enrollment: 50 participants
• Study Classification: INTERVENTIONAL
• Study Start Date: 2025-02-14
• Study Completion Date: 2025-05-31

Brief Summary

The goal of this clinical trial is to examine the effectiveness of the online self-delivered death anxiety intervention developed by our team in the general population with a randomized controlled trial. The study will recruit 50 participants, with 25 randomized to the death anxiety intervention group and 25 randomized to the control group (waiting list). The online intervention on death anxiety consists of 4 phases that take about 2 hours in total. The primary outcome DAS (Death Anxiety Scale) and DABBS (Death Anxiety Beliefs and Behaviors Scale) will be administered on baseline, post-treatment, 1-month follow-up, and 3-month follow-up assessments.

Conditions

Death Anxiety

Study Design

• Allocation Method: RANDOMIZED
• Intervention Model: PARALLEL
• Primary Study Purpose: TREATMENT
• Blinding Strategy: SINGLE

Study Groups

Death anxiety

Group Type: EXPERIMENTAL

Online self-delivered death anxiety intervention

Intervention Type: BEHAVIORAL

The online self-guided death anxiety intervention developed in this study is based on the Death Education and CBT framework. It took approximately two hours to complete the full intervention. The main content includes:

1. Emotional reactions and behavioral manifestations about death, fear management theories, and Chinese cultural attitudes toward death;

2. Imagine what you would like to say to yourself at the end of your life, and learn about various attitudes towards death through numerous examples;

3. Expressive writing, with moderate emotional exposure to stimulate reflection, accompanied by breathing exercises and positive thinking about death, to improve tolerance and control of death anxiety, and finally to correct biased perceptions by examining bad beliefs about death;

4. Prioritize the importance of things and make a practical action plan to enrich your life.

Waiting-List (WL) condition

Participants assigned to WL will be asked not to use our death anxiety intervention or seek additional help related to death anxiety during the 1-week intervention period. After the one-month follow-up of the experimental group, the WL group will receive the same intervention for death anxiety. WL participants will also be given contact information to use in case of increasing distress.

Group Type: OTHER

Waiting-List (WL) condition

Intervention Type: BEHAVIORAL

Participants assigned to WL will be asked not to use our death anxiety intervention or seek additional help related to death anxiety during the 1-week intervention period. After the one-month follow-up of the experimental group, the WL group will receive the same intervention for death anxiety. WL participants will also be given contact information to use in case of increasing distress.

Interventions

Online self-delivered death anxiety intervention

The online self-guided death anxiety intervention developed in this study is based on the Death Education and CBT framework. It took approximately two hours to complete the full intervention. The main content includes:

1. Emotional reactions and behavioral manifestations about death, fear management theories, and Chinese cultural attitudes toward death;

2. Imagine what you would like to say to yourself at the end of your life, and learn about various attitudes towards death through numerous examples;

3. Expressive writing, with moderate emotional exposure to stimulate reflection, accompanied by breathing exercises and positive thinking about death, to improve tolerance and control of death anxiety, and finally to correct biased perceptions by examining bad beliefs about death;

4. Prioritize the importance of things and make a practical action plan to enrich your life.

Intervention Type: BEHAVIORAL

Waiting-List (WL) condition

Participants assigned to WL will be asked not to use our death anxiety intervention or seek additional help related to death anxiety during the 1-week intervention period. After the one-month follow-up of the experimental group, the WL group will receive the same intervention for death anxiety. WL participants will also be given contact information to use in case of increasing distress.

Intervention Type: BEHAVIORAL

Eligibility Criteria

Inclusion Criteria

• 18-65 years of age
• Normal literacy skills and ability to use a smartphone proficiently
• Higher death anxiety that is above the cutoff of our measurement
• Voluntarily participate in this intervention and be able to provide informed consent.

Exclusion Criteria

• Severe depressive state or risk of suicidal self-injury, i.e., the total score of Patient Health Questionnaire 9-item ≥19 or the score of 9th item ≥2
• Diagnosed within 6 months with schizophrenia, depression, bipolar disorder, and other psychiatric disorders
• Have received any intervention for death anxiety or CBT intervention on any topic within the past 6 months.

• Minimum Eligible Age: 18 Years
• Maximum Eligible Age: 65 Years
• Eligible Sex: ALL
• Accepts Healthy Volunteers: No

Sponsors

101 Institute, Ministry of Civil Affairs of the People's Republic of China

UNKNOWN

Sponsor Role: collaborator

Peking University

OTHER

Sponsor Role: lead

Responsible Party

Yinyin Zang, PhD

Principal Investigator

Responsibility Role: PRINCIPAL_INVESTIGATOR

Locations

Peking University

Beijing, Beijing Municipality, China

Countries

China

Other Identifiers

Facing death anxiety pilot

Identifier Type: -

Identifier Source: org_study_id