Study protocol for ‘The Project About Loneliness and Social networks (PALS)’: a pragmatic, randomised trial comparing a facilitated social network intervention (Genie) with a wait-list control for lonely and socially isolated people

IntroductionLoneliness and social isolation have been identified as significant public health concerns, but improving relationships and increasing social participation may improve health outcomes and quality of life. The aim of the Project About Loneliness and Social networks (PALS) study is to assess the effectiveness and cost-effectiveness of a guided social network intervention within a community setting among individuals experiencing loneliness and isolation and to understand implementation of Generating Engagement in Network Involvement (Genie) in the context of different organisations.Methods and analysisThe PALS trial will be a pragmatic, randomised controlled trial comparing participants receiving the Genie intervention to a wait-list control group. Eligible participants will be recruited from organisations working within a community setting: any adult identified as socially isolated or at-risk of loneliness and living in the community will be eligible. Genie will be delivered by trained facilitators recruited from community organisations. The primary outcome will be the difference in the SF-12 Mental Health composite scale score at 6-month follow-up between the intervention and control group using a mixed effects model (accounting for clustering within facilitators and organisation). Secondary outcomes will be loneliness, social isolation, well-being, physical health and engagement with new activities. The economic evaluation will use a cost-utility approach, and adopt a public sector perspective to include health-related resource use and costs incurred by other public services. Exploratory analysis will use a societal perspective, and explore broader measures of benefit (capability well-being). A qualitative process evaluation will explore organisational and environmental arrangements, as well as stakeholder and participant experiences of the study to understand the factors likely to influence future sustainability, implementation and scalability of using a social network intervention within this context.Ethics and disseminationThis study has received NHS ethical approval (REC reference: 18/SC/0245). The findings from PALS will be disseminated widely through peer-reviewed publications, conferences and workshops in collaboration with our community partners.Trial registration numberISRCTN19193075

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Reinforcement Effects of Social Network Intervention during Nutritional Supplementation in Frail Older Adults

Gerontology ◽

10.1159/000514676 ◽

2021 ◽

pp. 1-13

Author(s):

Chang-O Kim ◽

Yunhui Jeong ◽

Younjin Park ◽

Jeong-Sook Bae ◽

Yoonjeong Kwon ◽

...

Keyword(s):

Older Adults ◽

Social Network ◽

Protein Supplementation ◽

Control Group ◽

Nutrition Program ◽

Frail Older Adults ◽

Social Network Intervention ◽

The Social ◽

Network Intervention ◽

Post Hoc

Introduction: Chronic undernutrition and a homebound state are corelated and are both important components of frailty. However, whether social network intervention combined with protein supplementation is an effective strategy to prevent functional decline among frail older adults is unclear. Methods: 150 frail older adults participated in a 3-month, 3-armed, community-based clinical trial and were randomly assigned to one of 3 groups: high-protein supplementation (additional 27 g of protein/day), the Social Nutrition Program (additional 27 g of protein/day and social network intervention), or a control group. Those assigned to the Social Nutrition Program group received individual counseling from 1 dietitian and 1 social worker during 6 home visits and were encouraged to participate in 4 sessions of community-based cooking activities, the social kitchen program. Primary outcomes were changes in Physical Functioning (PF) and the Timed Up and Go (TUG) test and were assessed at 0 months (baseline), 1.5 months (interim), and 3, 6, and 9 months (postintervention). Results: Compared with the control group, participants in the Social Nutrition Program showed an average improvement of 2.2–3.0 s in the TUG test and this improvement persisted for 3 months after the end of the program (post hoc p ≤ 0.030). The Social Nutrition Program also increased PF by 1.3 points while the control group showed a 1.4 point reduction at the end of the program (post hoc p = 0.045). Improvement in PF and TUG results was primarily observed for the socially frail subgroup of older adults in the Social Nutrition Program group rather than the physically frail subgroup. Frequency of leaving home functioned as a mediator (p = 0.042) and explained 31.2% of the total effect of the Social Nutrition Program on PF change. Conclusion: Our results indicate that social network intervention combined with protein supplementation can improve both the magnitude and duration of functional status among frail older community-dwelling adults.

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Identifying Influence Agents That Promote Physical Activity Through the Simulation of Social Network Interventions: Agent-Based Modeling Study (Preprint)

10.2196/preprints.12914 ◽

2018 ◽

Author(s):

Thabo J van Woudenberg ◽

Bojan Simoski ◽

Eric Fernandes de Mello Araújo ◽

Kirsten E Bevelander ◽

William J Burk ◽

...

Keyword(s):

Physical Activity ◽

Social Networks ◽

Social Network ◽

Selection Criteria ◽

Agent Based Modeling ◽

Agent Based ◽

Network Characteristics ◽

Social Network Intervention ◽

The Social ◽

Network Intervention

BACKGROUND Social network interventions targeted at children and adolescents can have a substantial effect on their health behaviors, including physical activity. However, designing successful social network interventions is a considerable research challenge. In this study, we rely on social network analysis and agent-based simulations to better understand and capitalize on the complex interplay of social networks and health behaviors. More specifically, we investigate criteria for selecting influence agents that can be expected to produce the most successful social network health interventions. OBJECTIVE The aim of this study was to test which selection criterion to determine influence agents in a social network intervention resulted in the biggest increase in physical activity in the social network. To test the differences among the selection criteria, a computational model was used to simulate different social network interventions and observe the intervention’s effect on the physical activity of primary and secondary school children within their school classes. As a next step, this study relied on the outcomes of the simulated interventions to investigate whether social network interventions are more effective in some classes than others based on network characteristics. METHODS We used a previously validated agent-based model to understand how physical activity spreads in social networks and who was influencing the spread of behavior. From the observed data of 460 participants collected in 26 school classes, we simulated multiple social network interventions with different selection criteria for the influence agents (ie, in-degree centrality, betweenness centrality, closeness centrality, and random influence agents) and a control condition (ie, no intervention). Subsequently, we investigated whether the detected variation of an intervention’s success within school classes could be explained by structural characteristics of the social networks (ie, network density and network centralization). RESULTS The 1-year simulations showed that social network interventions were more effective compared with the control condition (beta=.30; t100=3.23; P=.001). In addition, the social network interventions that used a measure of centrality to select influence agents outperformed the random influence agent intervention (beta=.46; t100=3.86; P<.001). Also, the closeness centrality condition outperformed the betweenness centrality condition (beta=.59; t100=2.02; P=.046). The anticipated interaction effects of the network characteristics were not observed. CONCLUSIONS Social network intervention can be considered as a viable and promising intervention method to promote physical activity. We demonstrated the usefulness of applying social network analysis and agent-based modeling as part of the social network interventions’ design process. We emphasize the importance of selecting the most successful influence agents and provide a better understanding of the role of network characteristics on the effectiveness of social network interventions.

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Evaluation of a credit-bearing online administered happiness course on undergraduates’ mental well-being during the COVID-19 pandemic

10.31234/osf.io/f92gn ◽

2021 ◽

Author(s):

Catherine Hobbs ◽

Sarah Jelbert ◽

Laurie Santos ◽

Bruce Hood

Keyword(s):

University Students ◽

Online Teaching ◽

Integrated Approach ◽

Well Being ◽

Control Group ◽

Wait List ◽

Wait List Control ◽

Positive Effects ◽

Online Format ◽

Mental Well Being

Psychoeducational courses focused on positive psychology interventions have been shown to benefit student well-being. However, since the onset of the COVID-19 pandemic and accompanying social restrictions, many educators have had to deliver their courses online. Given that online teaching presents a very different university experience for students, do psychoeducational courses provide similar well-being benefits in an online format? Here we demonstrate that despite the challenges of remote learning, first year university students (N= 166) taking an online “Science of Happiness” course during the first term experienced positive benefits to mental well-being in comparison to a wait-list control group (N=198) registered to take the course in the second term. Specifically, university students currently taking the course maintained their mental well-being over the semester relative to the wait-list control who showed a significant decline in well-being and increase in anxiety during the same period. Our findings suggest that psychoeducational courses delivered remotely can have a protective effect on well-being, even during an especially stressful time. We also observed that engagement with the course was high, though there was no evidence that this factor mediated the positive effects we observed. However, we did find evidence that prior interest in increasing well-being influenced the effects of the course; participants with lower well-being interest showed less of a benefit. Our results suggest that online psychoeducational courses might provide a relatively cheap, flexible and efficient means of providing support as part of an integrated approach to student mental well-being.

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Impact of Training Dementia Caregivers in Sensitivity to Nonverbal Emotion Signals

International Psychogeriatrics ◽

10.1017/s1041610202008256 ◽

2002 ◽

Vol 14 (1) ◽

pp. 25-38 ◽

Cited By ~ 63

Author(s):

Carol Magai ◽

Carl I. Cohen ◽

David Gomberg

Keyword(s):

Nursing Homes ◽

Well Being ◽

Clinical Psychologist ◽

Control Group ◽

Wait List ◽

Dementia Caregivers ◽

Wait List Control ◽

Dementia Patients ◽

Included Patient ◽

Facial Expressions Of Emotion

Ninety-one mid- to late-stage dementia patients residing in nursing homes, along with their staff caregivers, participated in a study designed to assess whether training caregivers in sensitivity to nonverbal communication could enhance mood and reduce symptoms in patients and improve psychological well-being in caregivers. Patients and staff at three nursing homes comprised three groups that were randomly assigned to either a non-verbal sensitivity group, a behavioral placebo group that received instruction in the cognitive and behavioral aspects of dementia, and a wait-list control. Training consisted of 10 one-hour sessions taught by a clinical psychologist using prepared materials. Patient measures, which were taken at baseline and at 4 three-week intervals, included patient symptomatology (depression, agitation, behavioral symptoms), as reported by the staff caregivers, and positive and negative facial expressions of emotion elicited during a face-to-face interview and coded by trained research staff. Results indicated that positive affect increased sharply during the first 6 weeks after intervention in the nonverbal group, with the placebo and wait-list controls showing no change. There was also a decline in negative affect across time for all groups. Effects with respect to patient symptomatology did not reach significance. Caregivers in both training groups showed a decline in symptomatology, whereas the wait-list control group did not.

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Identifying Influence Agents That Promote Physical Activity Through the Simulation of Social Network Interventions: Agent-Based Modeling Study

Journal of Medical Internet Research ◽

10.2196/12914 ◽

2019 ◽

Vol 21 (8) ◽

pp. e12914 ◽

Cited By ~ 9

Author(s):

Thabo J van Woudenberg ◽

Bojan Simoski ◽

Eric Fernandes de Mello Araújo ◽

Kirsten E Bevelander ◽

William J Burk ◽

...

Keyword(s):

Physical Activity ◽

Social Networks ◽

Social Network ◽

Selection Criteria ◽

Agent Based Modeling ◽

Agent Based ◽

Network Characteristics ◽

Social Network Intervention ◽

The Social ◽

Network Intervention

Background Social network interventions targeted at children and adolescents can have a substantial effect on their health behaviors, including physical activity. However, designing successful social network interventions is a considerable research challenge. In this study, we rely on social network analysis and agent-based simulations to better understand and capitalize on the complex interplay of social networks and health behaviors. More specifically, we investigate criteria for selecting influence agents that can be expected to produce the most successful social network health interventions. Objective The aim of this study was to test which selection criterion to determine influence agents in a social network intervention resulted in the biggest increase in physical activity in the social network. To test the differences among the selection criteria, a computational model was used to simulate different social network interventions and observe the intervention’s effect on the physical activity of primary and secondary school children within their school classes. As a next step, this study relied on the outcomes of the simulated interventions to investigate whether social network interventions are more effective in some classes than others based on network characteristics. Methods We used a previously validated agent-based model to understand how physical activity spreads in social networks and who was influencing the spread of behavior. From the observed data of 460 participants collected in 26 school classes, we simulated multiple social network interventions with different selection criteria for the influence agents (ie, in-degree centrality, betweenness centrality, closeness centrality, and random influence agents) and a control condition (ie, no intervention). Subsequently, we investigated whether the detected variation of an intervention’s success within school classes could be explained by structural characteristics of the social networks (ie, network density and network centralization). Results The 1-year simulations showed that social network interventions were more effective compared with the control condition (beta=.30; t100=3.23; P=.001). In addition, the social network interventions that used a measure of centrality to select influence agents outperformed the random influence agent intervention (beta=.46; t100=3.86; P<.001). Also, the closeness centrality condition outperformed the betweenness centrality condition (beta=.59; t100=2.02; P=.046). The anticipated interaction effects of the network characteristics were not observed. Conclusions Social network intervention can be considered as a viable and promising intervention method to promote physical activity. We demonstrated the usefulness of applying social network analysis and agent-based modeling as part of the social network interventions’ design process. We emphasize the importance of selecting the most successful influence agents and provide a better understanding of the role of network characteristics on the effectiveness of social network interventions.

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The Effects of Family-Based Mindfulness Intervention on ADHD Symptomology in Young Children and Their Parents: A Randomized Control Trial

Journal of Attention Disorders ◽

10.1177/1087054717743330 ◽

2017 ◽

Vol 24 (5) ◽

pp. 667-680 ◽

Cited By ~ 16

Author(s):

Herman H. M. Lo ◽

Simpson W. L. Wong ◽

Janet Y. H. Wong ◽

Jerf W. K. Yeung ◽

Eline Snel ◽

...

Keyword(s):

Intervention Group ◽

Well Being ◽

Medium Effect ◽

Control Group ◽

Wait List ◽

Adhd Symptoms ◽

Wait List Control Group ◽

Wait List Control ◽

Mindfulness Intervention ◽

Family Based

Objective: The aim of the study is to investigate the feasibility of a family-based mindfulness intervention in improving children with inattention and hyperactivity symptoms. Method: A total of 100 children aged 5 to 7 years with ADHD symptoms and their parents were randomly assigned to a family-based mindfulness intervention ( n = 50) or a wait-list control group ( n = 50). Results: Families from intervention group had greater improvements in children’s ADHD symptoms, with medium effect sizes of −0.60 for inattention and −0.59 for hyperactivity; overall behaviors; and parenting stress and well-being than those in wait-list control group. Conclusion: The positive results on the child primary outcome measures have provided initial evidence of the family-based mindfulness intervention as a treatment option to ADHD. The reduction of parental stress and increase in psychological well-being has demonstrated the value of mindfulness in enhancing parent’s self-management.

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Cultivating mindfulness: evaluation of a community-based mindfulness program for Arabic-speaking women in Australia

Current Psychology ◽

10.1007/s12144-021-02146-z ◽

2021 ◽

Author(s):

Ilse Blignault ◽

Hend Saab ◽

Lisa Woodland ◽

Cathy O’Callaghan

Keyword(s):

Intervention Group ◽

Community Setting ◽

Mindfulness Practice ◽

Sign Test ◽

Control Group ◽

Wait List ◽

Wait List Control Group ◽

Wait List Control ◽

Paired Samples ◽

Arabic Speaking

AbstractArabic-speaking communities in Australia underutilise mental health services. Previous research with Arabic-speakers recruited individually demonstrated that an Arabic Mindfulness Compact Disc (CD) was an acceptable and useful resource for this group. Subsequently, the CD was introduced as part of a 5-week group mindfulness program for Arabic-speaking Muslim women. The intervention was delivered in a community setting by a bilingual (Arabic/English) psychologist with support from a bilingual multicultural health worker. The mixed-methods evaluation incorporated a pre–post study with a wait-list control group. An Arabic translation of the Depression Anxiety and Stress Scale (DASS21) was administered at baseline and program completion. Pre–post differences were tested using the sign test for paired samples (one-sided). Qualitative methods were used to evaluate the program’s acceptability. After five weeks, the intervention group showed statistically significant improvement on all DASS21 subscales (n = 12, p < .001 for depression and stress and p < .01 for anxiety). For the wait-list control group, only anxiety showed significant improvement (n = 8, p < .05). Qualitative analysis revealed how the women grew in their understanding of mindfulness concepts and mastered the different techniques, how they dealt with painful memories, how mindfulness practice assisted them in their daily lives, and how they related mindfulness to Islam. The in-language mindfulness intervention was shown to be culturally and spiritually relevant, and clinically effective. The group program incorporating the Arabic Mindfulness CD has potential for scaling up. Further research is required to investigate effectiveness for Arabic-speaking men with similar backgrounds.

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Comparing the social networks of service users with long term mental health needs living in community with those in a general adult in-patient unit

International Journal of Social Psychiatry ◽

10.1177/00207640211017590 ◽

2021 ◽

pp. 002076402110175

Author(s):

Roberto Rusca ◽

Ike-Foster Onwuchekwa ◽

Catherine Kinane ◽

Douglas MacInnes

Keyword(s):

Mental Health ◽

Social Networks ◽

Social Network ◽

Patient Group ◽

Mental Health Problems ◽

Well Being ◽

Health Problems ◽

Practical Support ◽

The Social

Background: Relationships are vital to recovery however, there is uncertainty whether users have different types of social networks in different mental health settings and how these networks may impact on users’ wellbeing. Aims: To compare the social networks of people with long-term mental illness in the community with those of people in a general adult in-patient unit. Method: A sample of general adult in-patients with enduring mental health problems, aged between 18 and 65, was compared with a similar sample attending a general adult psychiatric clinic. A cross-sectional survey collected demographic data and information about participants’ social networks. Participants also completed the Short Warwick Edinburgh Mental Well-Being Scale to examine well-being and the Significant Others Scale to explore their social network support. Results: The study recruited 53 participants (25 living in the community and 28 current in-patients) with 339 named as important members of their social networks. Both groups recorded low numbers in their social networks though the community sample had a significantly greater number of social contacts (7.4 vs. 5.4), more monthly contacts with members of their network and significantly higher levels of social media use. The in-patient group reported greater levels of emotional and practical support from their network. Conclusions: People with serious and enduring mental health problems living in the community had a significantly greater number of people in their social network than those who were in-patients while the in-patient group reported greater levels of emotional and practical support from their network. Recommendations for future work have been made.

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DigiKnowIt News: Educating youth about pediatric clinical trials using an interactive, multimedia educational website

Journal of Child Health Care ◽

10.1177/13674935211003774 ◽

2021 ◽

pp. 136749352110037

Author(s):

Alison E. Parker ◽

Tracy M. Scull ◽

Abigail M. Morrison

Keyword(s):

Clinical Trials ◽

Interactive Multimedia ◽

Controlled Trial ◽

Intervention Group ◽

Control Group ◽

Wait List ◽

Wait List Control Group ◽

Wait List Control ◽

Satisfaction Questionnaire ◽

Study Participants

Pediatric clinical trials allow for the testing of appropriate and effective treatments for children. However, some challenges exist with recruitment. This study examined the effectiveness of DigiKnowIt News, an interactive, multimedia website (which includes activities, videos, and comic books) designed to educate children about clinical trials. A randomized controlled trial was conducted in 2018 with 91 participants ( M age = 10.92 years; SD = 2.06). Participants were randomly assigned to intervention or wait-list control groups and completed questionnaires at pretest and posttest (1 week later) about their knowledge, attitudes, beliefs about clinical trials, and self-efficacy for participating in clinical trials. Participants in the intervention group received access to DigiKnowIt News between pretest and posttest and completed a satisfaction questionnaire at posttest. At the end of the study, participants in the wait-list control group were offered the option to use the website and complete a satisfaction questionnaire. At posttest, participants in the intervention group, compared to participants in the wait-list control group, had more knowledge about clinical trials and more reported confidence for participating in clinical trials. Participants reported high levels of satisfaction with DigiKnowIt News. The findings suggest that an educational website can improve factors related to increasing rates of participation in clinical trials.

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