Online Culture for Mental Health in People Aged 16-24 (O-ACEPOP)

An Online Cultural Experience to Support Mental Health in People Aged 16-24 During COVID-19: the O-ACEPOP (Online Active Community Engagement Proof of Principle) Study

O-ACE POP is a randomised controlled trial of an online cultural experience named Ways of Being, compared to a typical museum website (the Ashmolean Museum). The primary aim is to compare these two interventions by efficacy on mood, distress (depression and anxiety), flourishing and investigate potential mechanisms of action, as well as the feasibility of a larger scale RCT.

Study Overview

• Status: Completed
• Conditions: Depression; Anxiety
• Intervention / Treatment: Other: WofB; Other: Ashmolean Website

Detailed Description

People of target age will be actively recruited with a link to Participant information and E-consent procedures for those who fulfil inclusion criteria and consent to entering their email address.

Consenting participants will enter a demographic questionnaire. Participants will then be emailed a unique ID number and requested to complete a baseline assessment on a computer, including self-report measures and online tasks. Participants will then be randomised to WoB or the Ashmolean Website. Once randomised participants will be requested to log on to the intervention at least once a day for the next three days

Randomisation and blinding Randomisation procedures will be followed. The participants will be aware of which intervention they have been allocated to. All measures are online and self-report.

Ways of Being (WoB) is an online cultural experience designed to reduce distress (symptoms of anxiety and depression) and promote positive mental health in people aged 16-24. It is a web-experience based on qualitative research and co-production with people aged 16-24. The experience is based on human centred narratives related to the objects and artworks of the Ashmolean Museum in Oxford and partner museums. In addition, other people's viewpoints on the objects and artworks or narrative, are a focus of the experience. The experience combines text, audio and aesthetic elements.

The Ashmolean Website is a generic museum website owned by the Ashmolean Museum of Art and Archaeology at the University of Oxford. The Ashmolean is the oldest public museum in the UK, and has incredibly rich and diverse collections from around the globe, ranging from classical civilisation to the Pre-Raphaelites and modern art. The website is aimed at general museum visitors, tourists, families, primary, secondary and tertiary learners, teachers, and those with specialist cultural interests.

Statistical Analysis Plan The main outcome will be the mean PANAS score at each time point. These will be regressed on time (pre-intervention vs. during, exit and follow up), a group indicator (WoB vs. the Ashmolean Website), and their interaction.

• Study Type: Interventional
• Enrollment (Actual): 463
• Phase: Not Applicable

Contacts and Locations

Study Locations

• United Kingdom
  • Oxfordshire
    • Oxford, Oxfordshire, United Kingdom
      • Ashmolean Museum Website

Participation Criteria

Eligibility Criteria

• Ages Eligible for Study: 16 years to 24 years (Child, Adult)
• Accepts Healthy Volunteers: No
• Genders Eligible for Study: All

Description

Inclusion Criteria:

People ages 16-24

Exclusion Criteria:

• No access to a laptop or desktop computer

Study Plan

How is the study designed?

Design Details

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

Number of Arms

2

Arms and Interventions

Participant Group / Arm	Intervention / Treatment
Experimental: Ways of Being online Experience; Ways of Being (WoB) every day for three days	Other: WofB; Online experience designed to reduce anxiety and depression and support mental health and wellbeing
Other: Ashmolean Website; The Ashmolean Website every day for three days	Other: Ashmolean Website; A generic museum website owned by the Ashmolean Museum of Art and Archaeology at the University of Oxford.

What is the study measuring?

Primary Outcome Measures

Outcome Measure	Measure Description	Time Frame
PANAS	Is a widely used scale of emotion and comprises 20 items, 10 measuring positive affect (excited, inspired etc) and 10 measuring negative affect (upset, afraid etc), on a Likert Scale of 1 (very slightly) to 5 (extremely). We will be measuring change between baseline and time-points (in Timeframe)	Baseline, Days 2-4 (morning and evening), Day 5, six weeks
K10	The K10 is a well validated self-report measure of distress (depression and anxiety). We will be measuring change between baseline and time-points (in Timeframe)	Baseline, Day 5, six weeks

Secondary Outcome Measures

Outcome Measure	Measure Description	Time Frame
Facial expression recognition task	The facial expression recognition task provides an objective measure of emotional bias which is associated with vulnerability to depression. We will be measuring change between baseline and time-points (in Timeframe)	Baseline, Day 5, six weeks
Probabilistic Incentive Learning Task	This is an instrumental learning task in which the participant gains or loses points by choosing between two paired images. The participant is told that some images are more likely (but not always) to be associated with gains and some with losses. The explicit aim is to maximize points. We will be measuring change between baseline and time-points (in Timeframe)	Baseline, Day 5, six weeks
Flourishing	The Flourishing Scale is an 8-item measure of self-perceived success in domains such as self-esteem, relationships, optimism and purpose. We will be measuring change between baseline and time-points (in Timeframe)	Baseline, Day 5, six weeks
Loneliness	The UCLA Loneliness Scale is a self-report inventory that uses a Likert-type scale to assess subjective feelings of loneliness. In addition we will add an item directly asking about loneliness. We will be measuring change between baseline and time-points (in Timeframe).	Baseline, Day 5, six weeks

Collaborators and Investigators

• Sponsor: University of Oxford

Publications and helpful links

General Publications

• Syed Sheriff RJ, Vuorre M, Riga E, Przybylski AK, Adams H, Harmer CJ, Geddes JR. A cultural experience to support mental health in people aged 16-24 during the COVID-19 pandemic compared to a typical museum website: study protocol of an online randomised controlled trial. Trials. 2021 Jul 22;22(1):482. doi: 10.1186/s13063-021-05441-z.

Study record dates

Study Major Dates

• Study Start (Actual): December 4, 2020
• Primary Completion (Actual): February 10, 2021
• Study Completion (Actual): February 10, 2021

Study Registration Dates

• First Submitted: November 27, 2020
• First Submitted That Met QC Criteria: December 4, 2020
• First Posted (Actual): December 11, 2020

Study Record Updates

• Last Update Posted (Actual): May 6, 2022
• Last Update Submitted That Met QC Criteria: May 5, 2022
• Last Verified: May 1, 2022

More Information

Terms related to this study

• Additional Relevant MeSH Terms: Behavioral Symptoms; Depression
• Other Study ID Numbers: 0009275

Plan for Individual participant data (IPD)

• Plan to Share Individual Participant Data (IPD)?: Yes
• IPD Plan Description: The data will be made available on OSF once peer reviewed
• IPD Sharing Time Frame: The data will be made available on OSF once peer reviewed
• IPD Sharing Supporting Information Type: Study Protocol; Statistical Analysis Plan (SAP); Informed Consent Form (ICF); Analytic Code

Drug and device information, study documents

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