A Gratitude Intervention App to Reduce Symptoms of Depression, Anxiety and Stress

September 27, 2024 updated by: Dalhousie University

A Mobile Application-based Gratitude Intervention's Psychological Effects

The goal of this clinical trial is to examine whether a newly developed gratitude intervention app can effectively improve psychological functioning, as measured by depression, anxiety, and stress symptoms, positive and negative affect

The main questions it aims to answer are:

1. Will people who are in the intervention group feel more positive emotions and experience fewer negative emotions such as stress, anxiety, and depression after three weeks?

Researchers will compare the intervention to a control group (a group not given the gratitude intervention) to see if the intervention works to improve psychological functioning.

Participants will:

  • Complete an online survey on emotional well-being and personality traits at the beginning and end of the three-week study, with daily mood ratings and stress assessments every three days.
  • Participants in the intervention group will use a mobile app to practice gratitude exercises.

Study Overview

Status

Completed

Conditions

Intervention / Treatment

Detailed Description

Background: Gratitude interventions have been shown to decrease depression, stress and anxiety symptoms, support enhanced coping with health-related problems and might improve both psychological and physical functioning in areas. However, results have been mixed with effects varying by outcome, duration, follow-up length, format, and age. A recent meta-analysis including 27 studies focusing more specifically on symptoms of depression and anxiety suggest there is a limited effect of gratitude interventions on reducing symptoms of depression and anxiety at post-intervention and follow-up.

Objective: Thus, the present study aims to implement a three-week gratitude intervention including five different types of gratitude tasks embedded in a mobile sensing application and examine the intervention's psychological effects.

Method: Participants will be recruited and randomly allocated into the intervention and the control group. The study will measure depression, anxiety and stress symptoms, positive and negative affect, negative affectivity and social inhibition before and after the three-week intervention period as psychological variables. It will analyze the effect of the gratitude intervention on the measured variables as well as examine the impact of negative affectivity and social inhibition on depression, anxiety and stress symptoms.

Implications: If the intervention is shown to effectively reduce psychological problems, it will be tested and implemented to support the well-being of university students as a stand-alone tool.

The study will examine whether the gratitude intervention can effectively reduce depression, anxiety and stress symptoms. We intend to recruit 120 participants. Extending previous research, it will also examine whether negative affectivity and social inhibition have an impact on the measured outcomes and whether the intervention can influence these traits.

It is hypothesized that:

  1. Positive affect will increase, while negative affect, stress, anxiety and depression symptoms will decrease from before to after the three weeks in the group that practices the gratitude intervention tasks (intervention group) compared to the group which doesn't (control group).
  2. Negative affectivity and social inhibition will decrease from before to after the three weeks in the intervention group in comparison to the control group.

Study Type

Interventional

Enrollment (Actual)

157

Phase

  • Not Applicable

Contacts and Locations

This section provides the contact details for those conducting the study, and information on where this study is being conducted.

Study Locations

  • Canada
    • Nova Scotia
      • Halifax, Nova Scotia, Canada, B3H 4R2
        • Dalhousie University

Participation Criteria

Researchers look for people who fit a certain description, called eligibility criteria. Some examples of these criteria are a person's general health condition or prior treatments.

Eligibility Criteria

Ages Eligible for Study

  • Adult

Accepts Healthy Volunteers

Yes

Description

Inclusion Criteria:

  • individuals aged 18-30, with access to an iPhone, and English speaking.

Exclusion Criteria:

  • any self-reported cardiovascular disease; endocrine disease, kidney disease, tumor, hypertension, coarctation of the aorta, fibromuscular dysplasia, sleep apnea, which can impact the function of the cardiovascular system, as well as any current mental health treatment.

Study Plan

This section provides details of the study plan, including how the study is designed and what the study is measuring.

How is the study designed?

Design Details

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

Arms and Interventions

Participant Group / Arm
Intervention / Treatment
Experimental: Gratitude Intervention Group
The intervention group used the Gratitude Intervention App (GIA), and the Predicting Risk and Outcomes of Social InTerActions (PROSIT) app, which is a mobile sensing app.
Behavioral: Gratitude Intervention App
The GIA app, an iOS application designed for this study, is based on effective gratitude interventions and tailored for youth. Access required a unique login. It features five exercises: a journal, photo book, imagine exercise, speech exercise, and meditation. The journal encourages daily entries. The photo book involves uploading photos of things users are grateful for, promoting mindfulness. The imagine exercise reflects on gratitude, while the speech exercise records users' gratitude. The meditation exercise enhances well-being. During the three-week study, daily notifications prompted exercise completion. The app, green and white with a flower-heart icon, offers email support for technical issues.
Other Names:
  • GIA
No Intervention: Control Non-gratitude Intervention Group
Participants in the control group downloaded and used only the PROSIT app, they did not use the Gratitude Intervention App (GIA).

What is the study measuring?

Primary Outcome Measures

Outcome Measure
Measure Description
Time Frame
Depression, anxiety, and stress
Time Frame: three weeks
Participant's depression, anxiety, and stress levels were measured with the Depression, Anxiety, and Stress Scale (DASS-21), which is a set of three self-report scales each consisting of seven items to measure the individual's emotional states of depression ("I couldn't seem to experience any positive feeling at all"), anxiety ("I felt I was close to panic"), and stress ("I found it difficult to relax"). Participants rated how much each statement applied to them in the past week, from 0 ("Did not apply to me at all") to 3 ("Applied to me very much or most of the time"). High scores indicate higher levels of symptoms of anxiety, depression, and stress. There are subscale score cut-offs for normal, mild, moderate, severe, and extremely severe emotional states. Participants were considered to show at least moderate symptomatology if they scored higher than 7 on the depression subscale, 6 on the anxiety subscale, and 10 on the stress subscale.
three weeks

Collaborators and Investigators

This is where you will find people and organizations involved with this study.

Sponsor

Dalhousie University

Collaborators

Canadian Institutes of Health Research (CIHR)
Canada Foundation for Innovation

Investigators

  • Principal Investigator: Sandra M Meier, PhD, Dalhousie University

Study record dates

These dates track the progress of study record and summary results submissions to ClinicalTrials.gov. Study records and reported results are reviewed by the National Library of Medicine (NLM) to make sure they meet specific quality control standards before being posted on the public website.

Study Major Dates

Study Start (Actual)

November 3, 2021

Primary Completion (Actual)

April 14, 2023

Study Completion (Actual)

April 14, 2023

Study Registration Dates

First Submitted

September 27, 2024

First Submitted That Met QC Criteria

September 27, 2024

First Posted (Actual)

October 1, 2024

Study Record Updates

Last Update Posted (Actual)

October 1, 2024

Last Update Submitted That Met QC Criteria

September 27, 2024

Last Verified

September 1, 2024

More Information

Terms related to this study

Keywords

Additional Relevant MeSH Terms

Other Study ID Numbers

  • 2021-5460_GIA

Plan for Individual participant data (IPD)

Plan to Share Individual Participant Data (IPD)?

NO

IPD Plan Description

Participant data will be made available upon reasonable request to Dr. Sandra Meier (PI).

Drug and device information, study documents

Studies a U.S. FDA-regulated drug product

No

Studies a U.S. FDA-regulated device product

No

This information was retrieved directly from the website clinicaltrials.gov without any changes. If you have any requests to change, remove or update your study details, please contact register@clinicaltrials.gov. As soon as a change is implemented on clinicaltrials.gov, this will be updated automatically on our website as well.

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