Feasibility of Community Psychosocial Intervention for Women

Integrating Psychosocial Support Into Protection and Community Programs for Women in Ecuador and Panama

The purpose of the current protocol is to describe a cluster randomized feasibility trial examining the integration of a scalable stress management intervention into Entre Nosotras ('among/between us'), a community-based psychosocial intervention for migrant and host community women in Ecuador and Panamá.

Specifically the study aims to:

1. Explore the relevance, acceptability, and feasibility of integrating a stress management intervention into community-based participatory women's group
2. Examine the feasibility of conducting a fully-powered cluster randomized controlled trial evaluating the effectiveness and implementation of integrating a stress management intervention into a community-based participatory women's group as compared to community-based participatory women's groups alone.

Study Overview

• Status: Active, not recruiting
• Conditions: Stress; Psychological Distress; Mental Health Wellness 1; Coping Skills
• Intervention / Treatment: Behavioral: Entre Nosotras; Behavioral: Doing What Matters in Times of Stress

Detailed Description

The proposed research directly targets two public health areas with major gaps in evidence in the field of humanitarian settings: (1) protection and safety, and (2) mental health and psychosocial wellbeing.

This research will be conducted in three sites in Ecuador and Panama. Latin America has recently experienced increasing levels of forced migration due to political conflict, community violence, and other factors. Panamá and Ecuador host refugees, asylum seekers, and migrants from a range of Central and South American countries (e.g., Colombia, Nicaragua, Venezuela). Migrants in these contexts face mental health and psychosocial problems, threats to their safety, and disrupted social support systems. Gaps in psychosocial services to address these problems despite their high prevalence persist in both countries and have been exacerbated due to the COVID-19 pandemic.

• Study Type: Interventional
• Enrollment (Actual): 275
• Phase: Not Applicable

Contacts and Locations

• Study Contact: Name: Claire Greene, PhD; Phone Number: 646 774 6427; Email: mg4069@cumc.columbia.edu

Study Locations

• Ecuador
  • Quito, Ecuador
    • HIAS
• Panama
  • Panamá City, Panama
    • HIAS

Participation Criteria

Eligibility Criteria

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

Description

Inclusion Criteria:

• Adult (18+ years) women residing in the study community who speak and understand Spanish
• Displaced or host community members

Exclusion Criteria:

• Severe psychological distress (Kessler-6 >=13)
• Moderate or high risk of suicide
• Cognitive impairment

Study Plan

How is the study designed?

Design Details

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

Number of Arms

2

Arms and Interventions

Participant Group / Arm	Intervention / Treatment
Experimental: Entre Nosotras (group psychosocial intervention) + stress management intervention; Experimental condition: Women residing in the study community (displaced and host population) will receive both group psychosocial intervention and stress management intervention. Participants will be given the Spanish version of the Doing What Matters in Times of Stress illustrated guide, that is published and made publicly available by the World Health Organization.	Behavioral: Entre Nosotras; A series of five 2-hour group sessions that are administered weekly by two trained female peer facilitators, who are selected by HIAS outreach workers and/or community leaders. The content of the sessions is based on the principles of Psychological First Aid and the Participatory Action Cycle, which is intended to generate community-led problem solving around priority issues affecting their wellbeing. Entre Nosotras is a community- and strengths-based intervention designed to mobilize social support, strengthen community connectedness, and stimulate collective action to promote the safety and wellbeing of women.; Behavioral: Doing What Matters in Times of Stress; The stress management components are derived from the World Health Organization Doing What Matters in Times of Stress illustrated guide for coping with adversity (World Health Organization, 2020). The illustrated guide and accompanying audio files are publicly available: https://www.who.int/publications/i/item/9789240003927. During five sessions, the intervention involves 15-20 minute exercises covering a range of stress management and coping skills.; Other Names: Stress management, coping skills
Active Comparator: Entre Nosostras (group psychosocial intervention); Comparison condition: Women residing in the study community (displaced and host population) will receive group psychosocial intervention only.	Behavioral: Entre Nosotras; A series of five 2-hour group sessions that are administered weekly by two trained female peer facilitators, who are selected by HIAS outreach workers and/or community leaders. The content of the sessions is based on the principles of Psychological First Aid and the Participatory Action Cycle, which is intended to generate community-led problem solving around priority issues affecting their wellbeing. Entre Nosotras is a community- and strengths-based intervention designed to mobilize social support, strengthen community connectedness, and stimulate collective action to promote the safety and wellbeing of women.

What is the study measuring?

Primary Outcome Measures

Outcome Measure	Measure Description	Time Frame
Proportion of women screened who are eligible to participate	This is to measure relevance of the intervention in the source population. Appropriateness of the intervention to population needs will be measured using quantitative indicators and qualitative reports from participants and facilitators during the process evaluation.	Baseline
Proportion of eligible and enrolled women who engage in sessions and/or complete all five group sessions.	This is to measure the acceptability of the intervention. Safety, an indicator of acceptability, will also be assessed by adverse events reported during study period. Qualitative interviews with participants and facilitators will inquire about acceptability and will be integrated with quantitative estimates of intervention engagement and completion.	Up to 5 weeks
Intervention Usability Scale Score	Usability will be measured using the 10-item Intervention Usability Scale, which will be completed by facilitators after the final session of the intervention. Scores are scaled to range from 0-100 with scores exceeding 68 considered to indicate usable interventions.	5 weeks
Recruitment rate	The number of individuals enrolled per month will be used to determine the feasibility of a fully-powered definitive trial.	Study period
Number of baseline imbalances between study conditions	The number of socio-demographic or study outcome imbalances between the intervention and comparison condition will be used to determine the feasibility of a fully-powered definitive trial and the success of the randomization process.	Baseline
Attrition - proportion of enrolled individuals who drop out of the study	The proportion of enrolled individuals who drop out of the study will be used to indicate the feasibility of a fully-powered definitive trial.	Up to 10 weeks
Contamination - proportion of sessions that did not include coping skills intervention components	The proportion of experimental sessions that did not include coping skills intervention components and the proportion of control sessions that did include coping skills intervention components from the Doing What Matters in Times of Stress intervention.	Up to 5 weeks
Fidelity checklist score	Average level of compliance with the intervention activities as intended within the manual. Assessed using a fidelity checklist with average item scores ranging from 0 = not implemented to 2 = implemented well. Scores between 0 and 2 indicate that the activities were partially implemented and/or could be improved.	Up to 5 weeks
Facilitator competence score	This is to measure the feasibility of the intervention. Facilitator competencies assessed using items from ENACT along qualitative interviews with facilitators will be assessed together. For the quantitative items, we selected six domains that are each scored on a scale from 1=needs improvement to 3=done well.	Up to 5 weeks

Secondary Outcome Measures

Outcome Measure	Measure Description	Time Frame
Personal Wellbeing Index	This is to measure psychosocial wellbeing; Subscales include satisfaction with standard of living, health, life achievement, personal relationships, personal safety, community connectedness, and future security. Each of the nine items is measured on a 0-to-10 scale (0 = No satisfaction at all; 10 = Very satisfied).	Baseline, Post-Intervention (approximately 5 Weeks), 5 Weeks Post-Intervention (approximately 10 Weeks)
Kessler 6 scale score	This is to measure psychological distress. The Kessler 6 includes six items measured on 5-point Likert scale where respondents indicate the frequency they have experienced a given symptom (from none of the time to all of the time).	Baseline, Post-Intervention (approximately 5 Weeks), 5 Weeks Post-Intervention (approximately 10 Weeks)
Brief COPE scale score	This is to measure coping. The 28-item scale rates the frequency of using certain coping skills on a 4-point Likert scale from "I haven't been using this at all" to "I've been doing this a lot".	Baseline, Post-Intervention (approximately 5 Weeks), 5 Weeks Post-Intervention (approximately 10 Weeks)
WHODAS Score	This is to measure functioning. This 12-item scale rates the difficulty individuals have had completing certain tasks on a 5-point Likert Scale from "none" to "extreme or cannot do"	Baseline, Post-Intervention (approximately 5 Weeks), 5 Weeks Post-Intervention (approximately 10 Weeks)
Oslo Social Support Scale Score	This is to measure social support. This 3-item measure assesses different domains of social support on a 5-point Likert scale with higher values indicating greater levels of social support. Response options vary by item.	Baseline, Post-Intervention (approximately 5 Weeks), 5 Weeks Post-Intervention (approximately 10 Weeks)

Collaborators and Investigators

• Sponsor: Columbia University
• Collaborators: University of Copenhagen; HIAS

Publications and helpful links

General Publications

• Greene MC, Bonz A, Cristobal M, Vega C, Andersen LS, Angulo A, Armijos A, Guevara ME, Benavides L, de la Cruz A, Lopez MJ, Moyano A, Murcia A, Noboa MJ, Rodriguez A, Solis J, Vergara D, Scharf J, Dutt P, Wainberg M, Tol WA. Evaluating the feasibility of a group psychosocial intervention for migrant and host community women in Ecuador and Panama: protocol for a multi-site feasibility cluster trial. Pilot Feasibility Stud. 2022 Jun 15;8(1):126. doi: 10.1186/s40814-022-01085-1.

Study record dates

Study Major Dates

• Study Start (Actual): September 9, 2021
• Primary Completion (Anticipated): March 1, 2024
• Study Completion (Anticipated): March 1, 2024

Study Registration Dates

• First Submitted: November 12, 2021
• First Submitted That Met QC Criteria: November 12, 2021
• First Posted (Actual): November 23, 2021

Study Record Updates

• Last Update Posted (Actual): April 7, 2023
• Last Update Submitted That Met QC Criteria: April 6, 2023
• Last Verified: April 1, 2023

More Information

Terms related to this study

• Other Study ID Numbers: AAAT7637; AID-OAAA17-00002 (Other Grant/Funding Number: United States Agency for International Development)

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