Mental Health Pathways in Internet Support Groups

February 10, 2021 updated by: Carnegie Mellon University

Internet Support Groups: Identifying and Improving Pathways for Mental Health

People facing serious health threats increasingly use Internet health support communities to obtain informational support, emotional support and other resources. This study introduces software algorithms similar to those used by social media sites to put people in touch with helpful information and social interactions. Participants from the American Cancer Society's Cancer Support Network will have access to this online support group using the default interface that orders content by broad content category and date or with a new interface that highlights communication content and people that match users' interests and needs.

Study Overview

Status

Completed

Conditions

Intervention / Treatment

Detailed Description

Internet support groups (ISGs) are online communities where people come together to exchange information, emotional support and other resources. They are an important resource for patients grappling with serious medical conditions. Although participation in health-related ISGs has been associated with significant reductions in participant-reported depression, anxiety and other indicators of psychological distress, many ISG members leave too soon to benefit. In a parallel study, we are using state-of-the art machine learning and automated language analysis techniques to assess the types of interactions that keep people participating in these groups and that lead to improved psychosocial well-being and health quality of life and how these interactions develop. The clinical trial described here uses these technologies and insights from our empirical research to build, deploy, and evaluate interventions that improve the interactions in Internet health support groups.

We will develop and pilot-test interventions to encourage effective communication processes identified in our empirical research. Participants from the American Cancer Society's Cancer Support Network will access this support group using either the default interface that orders content by disease diagnosis and date or with a new interface that sometimes highlights communication content and people who match their interests and needs. We will test whether mood, satisfaction with interactions and engagement in the group increase following interventions that (a) increase participants' receipt of individualized support from others; (b) provide participants with opportunities to offer support to others; (c) facilitate participants' expression of emotions; and (d) help participants form relationships with compatible peers. In a series of small, randomized experiments, we will examine how these interventions affect participants' communication behaviors as well as short-term engagement and satisfaction with their online interactions.

Study Type

Interventional

Enrollment (Actual)

6500

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

  • United States
    • Pennsylvania
      • Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, United States, 15213
        • Carnegie Mellon University

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

18 years and older (Adult, Older Adult)

Accepts Healthy Volunteers

Yes

Genders Eligible for Study

All

Description

Inclusion Criteria:

  • Is an existing or new registrant to the American Cancer Society's Cancer Support Network.

Exclusion Criteria:

-

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: Supportive Care
  • Allocation: Randomized
  • Interventional Model: Single Group Assignment
  • Masking: Double

Arms and Interventions

Participant Group / Arm
Intervention / Treatment
Placebo Comparator: Order by time and topic

Volunteers from the American Cancer Society's Cancer Survivors' Network (CSN) will see some of their messages delivered using CSN's default ordering, which shows messages within a conversational thread ordered by time stamp. Conversational threads are nested within a broad topic-based forum, like breast cancer or colorectal cancer survivors.

Note that this is a within-participant trial, so that all participants participate in all arms of the trial. Messages, not people, are randomly assigned to condition.
Behavioral: Order by time and topic
Active Comparator: Order by information relevance
In this condition some messages will be highlighted if they match the type of content the user has previously shown interest in, by previously contributing or reading semantically similar material.
Behavioral: Order by information relevance
Active Comparator: Order by social relationship
In this condition some messages will be highlighted because they come from people the user has previously shown interest in, by previously reading their posts or communicating with them.
Behavioral: Order by social relationship
Active Comparator: Order by help giving
In this condition some messages will be highlighted because they seek help and therefore provide an opportunity for participants to provide social support to others.
Behavioral: Order by help giving
Active Comparator: Order by self-disclosure
In this condition some messages will be highlighted because in them the writer is self-disclosing, and they provide provide an opportunity for participants to self-disclose in return.
Behavioral: Order by self-disclosure

What is the study measuring?

Primary Outcome Measures

Outcome Measure
Time Frame
Read message (Does the user read the message they were exposed to?)
Time Frame: 1 day
1 day

Secondary Outcome Measures

Outcome Measure
Measure Description
Time Frame
Interaction satisfaction (Self-report measure of satisfaction 3-item survey)
Time Frame: 1 day
Self-report measure of satisfaction with a random sample of messages. This is a 3-item survey that will be delivered as a pop-up questionnaire following a random sample of the messages users were exposed to.
1 day
Reply to message (How long does it take the users to reply to a message they were exposed to, if they reply at all.)
Time Frame: 2 days
How long does it take the users to reply to a message they were exposed to, if they reply at all.
2 days

Collaborators and Investigators

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

Sponsor

Carnegie Mellon University

Collaborators

National Institute of Mental Health (NIMH)
University of Pittsburgh
American Cancer Society, Inc.

Investigators

  • Principal Investigator: Robert E Kraut, PhD, Carnegie Mellon 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

Helpful Links

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 (Actual)

June 1, 2016

Primary Completion (Actual)

August 16, 2019

Study Completion (Actual)

August 16, 2019

Study Registration Dates

First Submitted

January 15, 2015

First Submitted That Met QC Criteria

March 23, 2015

First Posted (Estimate)

March 24, 2015

Study Record Updates

Last Update Posted (Actual)

February 12, 2021

Last Update Submitted That Met QC Criteria

February 10, 2021

Last Verified

August 1, 2019

More Information

Terms related to this study

Keywords

Additional Relevant MeSH Terms

Other Study ID Numbers

  • CarnegieMU

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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