Effectiveness of a Mobile Application in Improving Employees' Social Well-being.

Työntekijöiden Sosiaalisen Hyvinvoinnin lisääminen Mobiilisovelluksen Avulla (Effectiveness of a Mobile Application in Improving Employees' Social Well-being)

The goal of this cluster randomized controlled trial is to learn if using Frendie PRO mobile application at workplaces improves social well-being in employees. The main questions it aims to answer are:

Does using Frendie PRO mobile application at work for 6 months reduce loneliness in employees? Does using Fendie PRO mobile application at work for 6 months reduce social isolation in employees?

Researchers will compare employees from workplaces that use the Frendie PRO mobile application to employees from workplaces that do not use the mobile application to see if there are differences in their levels of social well-being (loneliness, social isolation, perceived social support, depressive symptoms).

Participants will be given access to the Frendie PRO mobile application and encouraged to use it by employers.

Study Overview

• Status: Active, not recruiting
• Conditions: Depressive Symptoms; Loneliness; Social Support; Social Isolation
• Intervention / Treatment: Behavioral: Frendie PRO mobile application

Detailed Description

Participants will be recruited from workplaces that use the Frendie PRO mobile application. After collecting baseline data, each workplace will be randomly assigned to treatment or control conditions. The unit of randomization is a workplace (or a team or department in bigger organizations).

The intervention group will be encouraged to download and start using the Frendie PRO mobile application. The control group will be informed of the date when they will have access to it (six months after the baseline).

Both groups are asked to participate in two follow-ups - a 3-month follow-up and a 6-month follow-up.

• Study Type: Interventional
• Enrollment (Estimated): 1012
• Phase: Not Applicable

Contacts and Locations

Study Locations

• Finland
  • North Savonia
    • Kuopio, North Savonia, Finland, 70110
      • University of Eastern Finland

Participation Criteria

Eligibility Criteria

• Ages Eligible for Study: Child; Adult; Older Adult
• Accepts Healthy Volunteers: Yes

Description

Inclusion Criteria:

• All employees working at the company/team/department participating in the study and starting to use the Frendie PRO mobile application within the study period.
• Ability to fill the questionnaires online in Finnish

Exclusion Criteria:

• incapable of using questionnaire online
• does not know Finnish well enough to answer the questions

Study Plan

How is the study designed?

Design Details

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

Number of Arms

2

Arms and Interventions

Participant Group / Arm	Intervention / Treatment
Experimental: Intervention	Behavioral: Frendie PRO mobile application; Frendie PRO mobile application offers employees an environment to manage their social relationships, organize leisure activities, and discuss personal or work-related matters.
No Intervention: Wait-list controls; The group will have access to the mobile application after the six-month follow-up period.

What is the study measuring?

Primary Outcome Measures

Outcome Measure	Measure Description	Time Frame
Loneliness	University of California, Los Angeles (UCLA) Loneliness Scale	Will be measured three times: baseline, 3-month follow-up and 6-month follow-up
Social Isolation	The Social Isolation scale was modified from an index used by Christiansen et al. (2021). Christiansen and colleagues, in turn, created it inspired by the detailed Social Network Index created by Berkman and Syme (1979). Communication frequency with the following groups is measured: family members who live elsewhere; friends; colleagues or fellow students at the workplace/school and outside of the workplace/school; neighbors and local community; people from social clubs, hobby groups, and religious organisations at and outside the meetings.	Will be measured three times: baseline, 3-month follow-up and 6-month follow-up

Secondary Outcome Measures

Outcome Measure	Measure Description	Time Frame
Social support	Oslo Social Support Scale	Will be measured three times: baseline, 3-month follow-up and 6-month follow-up
Depressive symptoms	Patient Health Questionnaire-9 (PHQ9)	Will be measured three times: baseline, 3-month follow-up and 6-month follow-up
Workplace loneliness	Specific scale regarding loneliness experienced at workplaces. Includes 5 items that are modified from the UCLA loneliness scale. It was validated in Finnish adult population. Please see Kemppinen and Tanskanen (2023) for full description: Kemppinen, S., Tanskanen, J., 2023. Suomenkielisen työyksinäisyysmittarin validointi etä- ja hybridityöläisillä (Eng title: Validation of Finnish loneliness at work scale with remote and hybrid worker sample). Psykologia 58, 198-219.	Will be measured three times: baseline, 3-month follow-up and 6-month follow-up

Other Outcome Measures

Outcome Measure	Measure Description	Time Frame
Activity and behavior on the application	Each individual user's activity on the mobile application will be measured. The data will be used for additional analyses.	6 months

Collaborators and Investigators

• Sponsor: University of Eastern Finland
• Collaborators: Finnish Work Environment Fund
• Investigators: Principal Investigator: Siiri-Liisi Kraav, PhD, University of Eastern Finland

Study record dates

Study Major Dates

• Study Start (Actual): September 20, 2024
• Primary Completion (Estimated): May 20, 2025
• Study Completion (Estimated): August 1, 2025

Study Registration Dates

• First Submitted: July 2, 2024
• First Submitted That Met QC Criteria: July 10, 2024
• First Posted (Actual): July 11, 2024

Study Record Updates

• Last Update Posted (Actual): May 2, 2025
• Last Update Submitted That Met QC Criteria: April 29, 2025
• Last Verified: April 1, 2025

More Information

Terms related to this study

• Keywords: loneliness; work well-being; social well-being
• Additional Relevant MeSH Terms: Behavioral Symptoms; Depression
• Other Study ID Numbers: 240128

Plan for Individual participant data (IPD)

• Plan to Share Individual Participant Data (IPD)?: YES
• IPD Plan Description: After 10 years, anonymized data will be offered to the Finnish Social Science Data Archive. If the data will not be accepted there, it will be destroyed.
• IPD Sharing Time Frame: After 10 years.
• IPD Sharing Access Criteria: Application to the Finnish Social Science Data Archive
• IPD Sharing Supporting Information Type: STUDY_PROTOCOL; ICF; CSR

Drug and device information, study documents

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