Volunteering and Cardiovascular Risk in Adolescents

October 2, 2012 updated by: University of British Columbia

How Volunteer Programs Affect Health and Well-being in Low-income Youth

This study tested whether getting youth engaged in helping others (volunteering) would benefit youth's physical health. 106 predominantly minority and low socioeconomic status (SES) youth were randomized to either volunteer weekly with elementary school children in after school programs or to a wait-list control group. The investigators hypothesized that cardiovascular risk markers of C-reactive protein (CRP), interleukin-6 (IL-6), total cholesterol, and body mass index (BMI) would be lower at post-intervention (4 months after baseline) in the volunteer group compared to the control group. The investigators also hypothesized that the intervention might work through pathways such as reducing negative mood, improving self esteem, and increasing prosocial behaviors (empathy, altruism).

Study Overview

Status

Completed

Conditions

Intervention / Treatment

Study Type

Interventional

Enrollment (Actual)

106

Phase

  • Not Applicable

Contacts and Locations

This section provides the contact details for those conducting the study, and information on where this study is being conducted.

Study Locations

  • Canada
    • British Columbia
      • Vancouver, British Columbia, Canada, V5M1Y5
        • Vancouver Technical Secondary School

Participation Criteria

Researchers look for people who fit a certain description, called eligibility criteria. Some examples of these criteria are a person's general health condition or prior treatments.

Eligibility Criteria

Ages Eligible for Study

  • Child
  • Adult
  • Older Adult

Accepts Healthy Volunteers

Yes

Genders Eligible for Study

All

Description

Inclusion Criteria:

  • 10th grade high school student
  • English speaking
  • No chronic illnesses

Exclusion Criteria:

  • Chronic medical illness

Study Plan

This section provides details of the study plan, including how the study is designed and what the study is measuring.

How is the study designed?

Design Details

  • Primary Purpose: Treatment
  • Allocation: Randomized
  • Interventional Model: Parallel Assignment
  • Masking: Single

Arms and Interventions

Participant Group / Arm
Intervention / Treatment
No Intervention: Control
Wait-list control
Experimental: Volunteering
Weekly volunteering with elementary school children in after school programs
Behavioral: Volunteering
Weekly volunteering with elementary school children in after school programs

What is the study measuring?

Primary Outcome Measures

Outcome Measure
Time Frame
Body mass index
Time Frame: Baseline-adjusted post-intervention scores at 4 months
Baseline-adjusted post-intervention scores at 4 months
C-reactive protein
Time Frame: Baseline-adjusted post-intervention scores at 4 months
Baseline-adjusted post-intervention scores at 4 months
Interleukin-6
Time Frame: Baseline-adjusted post-intervention scores at 4 months
Baseline-adjusted post-intervention scores at 4 months
Total Cholesterol
Time Frame: Baseline-adjusted post-intervention scores at 4 months
Baseline-adjusted post-intervention scores at 4 months

Collaborators and Investigators

This is where you will find people and organizations involved with this study.

Sponsor

University of British Columbia

Collaborators

HopeLab Foundation
Social Sciences and Humanities Research Council of Canada
William T. Grant Foundation

Investigators

  • Principal Investigator: Edith Chen, Northwestern University

Publications and helpful links

The person responsible for entering information about the study voluntarily provides these publications. These may be about anything related to the study.

General Publications

Study record dates

These dates track the progress of study record and summary results submissions to ClinicalTrials.gov. Study records and reported results are reviewed by the National Library of Medicine (NLM) to make sure they meet specific quality control standards before being posted on the public website.

Study Major Dates

Study Start

September 1, 2011

Primary Completion (Actual)

January 1, 2012

Study Completion (Actual)

January 1, 2012

Study Registration Dates

First Submitted

September 21, 2012

First Submitted That Met QC Criteria

September 27, 2012

First Posted (Estimate)

October 2, 2012

Study Record Updates

Last Update Posted (Estimate)

October 4, 2012

Last Update Submitted That Met QC Criteria

October 2, 2012

Last Verified

October 1, 2012

More Information

Terms related to this study

Keywords

Other Study ID Numbers

  • H11-00943

This information was retrieved directly from the website clinicaltrials.gov without any changes. If you have any requests to change, remove or update your study details, please contact register@clinicaltrials.gov. As soon as a change is implemented on clinicaltrials.gov, this will be updated automatically on our website as well.

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