Telephone Support During Overseas Deployment for Military Spouses

Deployment impacts both service member and family, and the cost can be high. Spouses' reactions to deployment may include emotional distress, loneliness, anticipatory fear or grief, somatic complaints, and depression. The goal is to help spouses learn ways to manage stress and solve problems related to deployment and reintegration, communication, managing long distance relationships, and other common problems. The study will compare telephone support groups to online education sessions. The study will enroll 160 spouses. In the Telephone Support groups, a group leader and participants will meet 12 times over six months to focus on education, skills building and support. Education Only online sessions will provide the same education content, without skills building or support. Content includes strategies to reduce or eliminate communication difficulties during deployment, how to find help; practical concerns during deployment; fostering resilience and decreasing stress; fostering relationships while apart, negotiating roles and relationships; changes during deployment; strategies to support the spouse and the service member; and cues to alert spouses when to seek mental health services for the family or themselves. Outcomes will include resilience, depression, anxiety and coping behaviors. Telephone data collection will be conducted at baseline, six and twelve months.

Study Overview

• Status: Completed
• Conditions: Resilience, Psychological; Family Members; Military Personnel; Deployment
• Intervention / Treatment: Behavioral: Telephone support groups; Other: Education webinars

• Study Type: Interventional
• Enrollment (Actual): 161
• Phase: Not Applicable

Contacts and Locations

Study Locations

• United States
  • Tennessee
    • Memphis, Tennessee, United States, 38104
      • Memphis VA Medical Center

Participation Criteria

Eligibility Criteria

• Ages Eligible for Study: 18 years and older (Adult, Older Adult)
• Accepts Healthy Volunteers: Yes
• Genders Eligible for Study: All

Description

Inclusion Criteria:

• spouse or significant other (living as married for at least one year before deployment) of an overseas deployed military service member
• deployed at least six months

Exclusion Criteria:

• living as married for at least one year before deployment

Study Plan

How is the study designed?

Design Details

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

Number of Arms

2

Arms and Interventions

Participant Group / Arm	Intervention / Treatment
Experimental: Telephone support groups; Telephone support groups, each with participants and a trained group leader. Each hour-long telephone group will meet bi-monthly for six months for a total of 12 meetings. Groups are structured with education, skills building, and support. Participants will receive and use a Spouse Workbook with information and activities.	Behavioral: Telephone support groups
Active Comparator: Education webinars; Education Webinar session topics are the same that are covered in the intervention arm without telephone interaction/support and skills building components. Each session is 30-minutes. Each participant receives a Spouse Workbook with information and activities.	Other: Education webinars

What is the study measuring?

Primary Outcome Measures

Outcome Measure	Measure Description	Time Frame
Spouse Self-report of Resilience	Connor-Davidson Resilience Scale (CD-RISC) measured at baseline, 6 and 12 months. Scores range from 0-100. Higher scores equal greater resilience.	Baseline, 6 months
Spouse Self Report of Anxiety	Generalized Anxiety Disorder (GAD-7) measured at baseline, 6 and 12 months. Scores range from 0 to 21; higher scores equal more anxiety.	baseline, and 6 months
Spouse Self Report of Depression	Patient Health Questionnaire - Depression (PHQ)-9 measured at baseline, 6 and 12 months. Scores range from 0-27 with higher scores indicating more depressive symptoms.	Baseline, 6 months

Collaborators and Investigators

• Sponsor: Memphis VA Medical Center
• Collaborators: United States Department of Defense
• Investigators: Principal Investigator: Linda O Nichols, PhD, Memphis VA Medical Center and University of Tennessee Health Science Center; Principal Investigator: Jennifer L Martindale-Adams, EdD, University of Tennessee Health Science Center and Memphis VA Medical Center

Study record dates

Study Major Dates

• Study Start: April 1, 2011
• Primary Completion (Actual): December 1, 2014
• Study Completion (Actual): June 1, 2015

Study Registration Dates

• First Submitted: April 4, 2013
• First Submitted That Met QC Criteria: April 8, 2013
• First Posted (Estimate): April 11, 2013

Study Record Updates

• Last Update Posted (Actual): November 24, 2017
• Last Update Submitted That Met QC Criteria: October 20, 2017
• Last Verified: October 1, 2017

More Information

Terms related to this study

• Keywords: Depression; Telephone; Support groups; Social support
• Other Study ID Numbers: W81XWH-11-2-0087

Plan for Individual participant data (IPD)

• Plan to Share Individual Participant Data (IPD)?: NO

Drug and device information, study documents

• Studies a U.S. FDA-regulated drug product: No
• Studies a U.S. FDA-regulated device product: No