A Tailored Program to Promote Well-being and Physical Activity in Mid-life Adults With Low Physical Activity (MASTERY)

This is a single-arm pilot trial to examine the feasibility, acceptability, and preliminary efficacy of the 12-week, phone-delivered, Midlife Activity, Stress reduction, Time Efficiency, Resilience, and Youthfulness (MASTERY) intervention, which utilizes positive psychology (PP), motivational interviewing (MI), and specific midlife modules (e.g., on time management, financial stress, caregiving stress, or occupational stress) to promote well-being and physical activity in mid-life adults.

Study Overview

• Status: Completed
• Conditions: Exercise; Middle Aged
• Intervention / Treatment: Behavioral: MASTERY

Detailed Description

This is a single-arm proof-of-concept trial of a phone-delivered positive psychology-motivational interviewing (PP-MI) intervention, with content adapted to midlife persons. Midlife adults with low physical activity were recruited from outpatient clinics, completed baseline outcome measures (including wearing an accelerometer to measure activity for one week), completed the 12-week MASTERY intervention, and then completed a follow-up session to obtain repeat outcome information. The intervention, which involved weekly phone sessions with a trained study team member, included the completion of PP exercises, setting physical activity goals, and completion of activities to reduce midlife-specific stressors. The primary outcomes were feasibility and acceptability, and secondary outcomes included accelerometer-measured physical activity and self-report outcomes.

• Study Type: Interventional
• Enrollment (Actual): 11
• Phase: Not Applicable

Contacts and Locations

Study Locations

• United States
  • Massachusetts
    • Boston, Massachusetts, United States, 02114
      • Massachusetts General Hospital

Participation Criteria

Eligibility Criteria

• Ages Eligible for Study: 45 years to 64 years (Adult)
• Accepts Healthy Volunteers: No
• Genders Eligible for Study: All

Description

Inclusion Criteria:

• Age 45-64 years at time of enrollment.
• Low physical activity (defined as ≤150 minutes/week of MVPA, in accordance with consensus recommendations for moderate or greater intensity aerobic physical activity and measured using a brief version of the well-validated International Physical Activity Questionnaire (IPAQ) scale.

Exclusion Criteria:

• Existing coronary artery disease. Coronary artery disease will be identified through review of the medical record, with clarification by participants' primary clinician if needed, as part of recruitment procedures. Existing coronary artery disease will be defined as a prior acute coronary syndrome (unstable angina or myocardial infarction) or diagnosed via cardiac catheterization.
• To meet criteria for a prior acute coronary syndrome, for myocardial infarction, patients must have experienced at least two of three World Health Organization criteria for an acute myocardial infarction: typical chest pain, elevated cardiac enzymes, and electrocardiographic changes consistent with myocardial infarction.
• For unstable angina, participants must have had new onset angina within 2 months, exacerbation of previous angina with rest pain or with minimal exercise, or angina within 2 weeks of myocardial infarction, with confirmation of this diagnosis by the patient's primary medical provider or inpatient treatment team; this definition has been used in prior trials.
• To meet criteria for coronary artery disease diagnosed at cardiac catheterization, participants must have had 50% stenosis of the left main artery or 70% stenosis of another coronary artery, consistent with consensus definitions of obstructive coronary artery disease.
• Cognitive disturbance precluding participation or informed consent, as identified using a six-item cognitive screen designed to assess suitability for research participation.
• Lack of available telephone.
• An inability to communicate in English.
• A condition limiting physical activity (e.g., arthritis, chronic obstructive pulmonary disease), identified by patient and medical record, confirmed by primary medical provider as needed.
• Participation in similar programs (e.g., mind-body interventions) as reported by patients.

Study Plan

How is the study designed?

Design Details

• Primary Purpose: Prevention
• Allocation: N/A
• Interventional Model: Single Group Assignment
• Masking: None (Open Label)

Number of Arms

1

Arms and Interventions

Participant Group / Arm

Intervention / Treatment

Experimental: MASTERY; For each session, a PP exercise will be described in the manual, with instructions and space to write about the exercise and its effects. Next, an MI section will outline specific MI-based topics (e.g., pros/cons, managing slips) and will contain space to write a specific physical activity goal and to track physical activity (e.g., through step counter data) over the subsequent week. At the in-person visit #2, interventionists will explain PP exercise 1 and MI session 1 to the participants. Calls will last ~30 minutes. Participants will then independently complete PP exercises and MI-based goals and review them at phone sessions over 12 weeks. PP and MI components will be delivered stepwise within sessions (rather than intertwined) based on our experience, participant feedback, and pilot work.

Behavioral: MASTERY; A 12-week, phone-delivered intervention utilizing positive psychology (PP), motivational interviewing (MI), and specific midlife modules (e.g., on time management, financial stress, caregiving stress, or occupational stress) to promote physical activity and well-being in mid-life adults.

What is the study measuring?

Primary Outcome Measures

Outcome Measure	Measure Description	Time Frame
Proportion of total phone sessions completed	To assess the feasibility of the intervention	12 weeks
Mean ease ratings of exercises	To assess how easy participants found the assigned exercises. Ratings will be made on a scale of 0-10, with 0 being very difficult and 10 being very easy.	12 weeks
Mean utility ratings of exercises	To assess how useful participants found the assigned exercises. Ratings will be made on a scale of 0-10, with 0 being not at all useful and 10 being very useful.	12 weeks

Secondary Outcome Measures

Outcome Measure	Measure Description	Time Frame
Proportion of sessions completed by participants	To assess the feasibility of study procedures. We will divide the number of phone sessions completed by participants by the total number of phone sessions that could have been completed.	12 weeks
Change in Moderate-Vigorous Physical Activity	ActiGraph GT3X+ step counters are validated as measures of physical activity and have been used in numerous studies of physical activity in patients with medical illness. In this trial, participants will wear the accelerometer for one week at baseline and at 12 weeks. We will report change from baseline to 12 weeks in the average number of minutes of MVPA performed per day.	Change from Baseline to 12 weeks
Change in Positive Affect	The positive affect items on the Positive and Negative Affect Schedule (PANAS), a well-validated scale used in other intervention trials and in patients with medical illnesses, will be used to measure positive affect (Range: 10-50). Change will be calculated by subtracting the score at baseline from the score at 12 weeks. Higher scores indicate higher levels of positive affect.	Change in score from Baseline to 12 weeks
Change in Optimism	Life Orientation Test-Revised is a well-validated 6-item instrument used to measure dispositional optimism (Range: 0-24). Change will be calculated by subtracting the score at baseline from the score at 12 weeks. Higher scores indicate higher levels of optimism.	Change in score from Baseline to 12 weeks
Change in Depression	The Hospital Anxiety and Depression Scale (HADS)-depression subscale will be used to measure depression. This is a well-validated scale with few somatic symptom items that can confound mood/anxiety assessment in medically-ill patients (Range: 0-21). Change will be calculated by subtracting the score at baseline from the score at 12 weeks. Higher scores indicate higher levels of depression.	Change in score from Baseline to 12 weeks
Change in Anxiety	The Hospital Anxiety and Depression Scale (HADS)-anxiety subscale will be used to measure anxiety. This is a well-validated scale with few somatic symptom items that can confound mood/anxiety assessment in medically-ill patients (Range: 0-21). Change will be calculated by subtracting the score at baseline from the score at 12 weeks. Higher scores indicate higher levels of anxiety.	Change in score from Baseline to 12 weeks

Collaborators and Investigators

• Sponsor: Massachusetts General Hospital
• Investigators: Study Director: Jeff C Huffman, MD, Massachusetts General Hopsital

Publications and helpful links

General Publications

• Huffman JC, Massey CN, Chung WJ, Harnedy LE, Carrillo A, Feig EH, Celano CM. A Psychological-Behavioral Intervention to Improve Physical Activity in Midlife Adults With Low Baseline Physical Activity. Prim Care Companion CNS Disord. 2021 Jul 29;23(4). pii: 20m02876. doi: 10.4088/PCC.20m02876.

Study record dates

Study Major Dates

• Study Start (Actual): October 1, 2019
• Primary Completion (Actual): March 19, 2020
• Study Completion (Actual): March 19, 2020

Study Registration Dates

• First Submitted: February 2, 2021
• First Submitted That Met QC Criteria: February 5, 2021
• First Posted (Actual): February 9, 2021

Study Record Updates

• Last Update Posted (Actual): February 9, 2021
• Last Update Submitted That Met QC Criteria: February 5, 2021
• Last Verified: February 1, 2021

More Information

Terms related to this study

• Other Study ID Numbers: 2019P002328

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