Personality and Cancer Care Study

Personality and Cancer Care Study: Examining the Effects of a Personality Feedback Intervention in Adults With Cancer

This randomized clinical trial will test whether giving an individualized personality feedback report to adults with a history of cancer can improve their self-awareness, confidence in managing their illness, and mood.

Study Overview

• Status: Completed
• Conditions: Cancer
• Intervention / Treatment: Behavioral: Personality Feedback Self-Management Intervention

Detailed Description

This will be a randomized clinical trial examining whether a personality feedback intervention can improve three outcomes in an online sample of adults with cancer: 1) self-awareness, 2) self-efficacy for managing aspects of their illness, and 3) mood. The study will occur in a single 30-minute online session conducted in Qualtrics, with a pre-post randomized design. Participants will respond to a baseline survey including a measurement of the Five-Factor Personality Model and measures of the 3 outcomes of interest, followed by random assignment to either an intervention group or control group. Both groups will read a brief description of the Five-Factor Model of Personality. Those randomized to the intervention group will also receive an individualized feedback report containing their personality results on each of the five personality factors and recommendations for cancer self-management based on these results. After reading the personality information, participants will respond to the outcome measures again in a post-intervention survey. Control participants will receive their individualized personality feedback reports after the study is complete.

• Study Type: Interventional
• Enrollment (Actual): 419
• Phase: Not Applicable

Contacts and Locations

Study Locations

• United States
  • Louisiana
    • New Orleans, Louisiana, United States, 70118
      • Tulane University

Participation Criteria

Eligibility Criteria

• Ages Eligible for Study: 18 years and older (Adult, Older Adult)
• Accepts Healthy Volunteers: No
• Genders Eligible for Study: All

Description

Inclusion Criteria:

• consent to participate
• at least 18 years old (self-reported)
• have a current or past cancer diagnosis (self-reported)

Exclusion Criteria:

• under 18 years old (self-reported)
• indicate that they have no known history of cancer (self-reported)
• unable to read or understand English

Study Plan

How is the study designed?

Design Details

• Primary Purpose: Supportive Care
• Allocation: Randomized
• Interventional Model: Parallel Assignment
• Masking: None (Open Label)

Number of Arms

2

Arms and Interventions

Participant Group / Arm	Intervention / Treatment
Experimental: Personality Feedback; The intervention arm will read about the Five-Factor model and receive a feedback report with individualized personality results and self-management recommendations.	Behavioral: Personality Feedback Self-Management Intervention; The intervention is a personality feedback report that will tell participants whether they scored low (bottom third), average (middle third), or high (top third) on each of the five factor personality characteristics based on gender-matched norms. In addition to a description of general tendencies based on their level of each personality trait, the feedback will include information about how scoring in a given category may relate to an individual's cancer self-management or healthcare decision making. The feedback for each personality trait will include recommendations for how to improve key outcomes.
No Intervention: No-feedback Control; The control arm will read about the Five-Factor model but will not receive feedback or their personality results until after the study.

What is the study measuring?

Primary Outcome Measures

Outcome Measure	Measure Description	Time Frame
Self-Awareness Outcomes Questionnaire - Change Score	Participants' current state-level self-awareness will be assessed with a modified 6-item short form of the Reflective Self-Development subscale included in the Self-Awareness Outcomes Questionnaire (SAOQ). Participants rate each item from 1 to 5, and a total score will be calculated by summing participants responses to each item. The total score at each time point will range from 6 to 30, with higher scores indicating higher levels of self-awareness. The difference score from pre-intervention to post-intervention will be used in analyses, with higher scores indicating a greater increase in self-awareness.	pre-intervention and immediately post-intervention.

Secondary Outcome Measures

Outcome Measure	Measure Description	Time Frame
PROMIS Self-Efficacy for Managing Chronic Conditions - Change Score	Participants will respond to three 4-item custom short forms from the Patient-Reported Outcomes Measurement Information System (PROMIS) Self-efficacy for Managing Chronic Conditions Domain: 1) self-efficacy for managing emotions, 2) self-efficacy for managing symptoms, and 3) self-efficacy for managing medications and treatment. Each item is rated from 1 to 5, with raw scores on a summated total scale for each subscale ranging from 4 to 20. Each subscale's raw total score will be converted to a T-score, and a mean composite T-score across the 3 subscales will be calculated for each time point. Higher scores indicate higher levels of self-efficacy for managing their illness. For analyses, the difference in the mean T-score from pre-intervention to post-intervention will be computed, with higher scores indicating a greater increase in self-efficacy for managing their illness.	pre-intervention and immediately post-intervention.
PANAS Positive Affect Subscale - Change Score	The 10-item positive affect scale from the Positive and Negative Affect Schedule (PANAS) will be used to assess current mood. Participants rate each item from 1 to 5, and a total summated scale score will range from 10 to 50, with higher scores indicating higher levels of positive affect. For analyses, the difference score from pre-intervention to post-intervention will be calculated, with higher scores indicating a greater increase in positive mood.	pre-intervention and immediately post-intervention.

Collaborators and Investigators

• Sponsor: Tulane University
• Investigators: Principal Investigator: Laura M Perry, MS, Tulane University

Study record dates

Study Major Dates

• Study Start (Actual): November 18, 2020
• Primary Completion (Actual): February 8, 2021
• Study Completion (Actual): February 8, 2021

Study Registration Dates

• First Submitted: November 3, 2020
• First Submitted That Met QC Criteria: November 10, 2020
• First Posted (Actual): November 12, 2020

Study Record Updates

• Last Update Posted (Actual): March 2, 2021
• Last Update Submitted That Met QC Criteria: March 1, 2021
• Last Verified: March 1, 2021

More Information

Terms related to this study

• Other Study ID Numbers: 2020-909

Drug and device information, study documents

• Studies a U.S. FDA-regulated drug product: No
• Studies a U.S. FDA-regulated device product: No
• product manufactured in and exported from the U.S.: No