NCT04734171

Social Activity, Loneliness and Stigma During COVID-19 Outbreak

COVID-19 and Its Implications on Social Activity, Loneliness and Stigma

• Status: Completed
• Phase: N/A
• Study type: Interventional
• Enrollment: 1,200 (actual)
• Sponsor: Columbia University · Academic / Other
• Sex: All
• Age: 18 Years – 70 Years
• Healthy volunteers: Accepted

Summary

The overall goal of this study is to evaluate the association of quarantine measures for COVID-19 and perceived anxiety, stigma and loneliness and to evaluate the efficacy of interventions in reducing anxiety, loneliness and perception of stigma induced by self-isolation during the outbreak. Specific Aims: In the proposed study, participants will include members of the United States general population who will be randomly assigned to either (a) a vignette to learn about the COVID-19 outbreak, (b) a vignette to learn about the COVID-19 outbreak AND a video aimed at encouraging the use of a digital device (i.e. not in person contact) to meet with friends, (c) a vignette to learn about the COVID-19 outbreak AND a video aimed at sensitizing participants to COVID-19 related stigma, (d) Control arm. Web-based self-report questionnaires will be conducted to compare interventions and control groups. The short and low-cost online module will allow recruitment of a large sample of people. Hypotheses: (1) the video-based intervention groups will demonstrate lower rates of anxiety and loneliness than vignette and control groups, (2) the video-based group that presents an individual with COVID-19 will demonstrate lower rate of stigma than other groups.

Detailed description

Currently, the world is experiencing a Coronavirus outbreak, COVID-19, which originated in mainland China in December 2019, spread rapidly to South Korea and Europe, Italy in particular, between January and March of 2020 and is currently spreading in all continents and has been recognized as a pandemic. It is of high importance to monitor how the trends in COVID-19 outbreak are shaping the social contexts and norms across communities and families. In a time in which individuals all over the world are experiencing quarantine, it is important to evaluate the potential surge of the phenomena of social anxiety, stigma, and of perceived fear and loneliness. Furthermore, it is critical to study interventions that aim to reduce each of these. The overall goal of this study is to evaluate the association of quarantine measures for COVID-19 and perceived anxiety, stigma and loneliness and to evaluate the efficacy of interventions in reducing anxiety, loneliness and perception of stigma induced by self-isolation during the outbreak. The hypotheses will be tested using ANOVA and multinomial logistic regressions. An alpha level of 0.01 will be used to account for multiple testing.

Conditions

• Covid19
• Fear
• Loneliness

Interventions

Type	Name	Description
BEHAVIORAL	Digital social activity video intervention	A 150 seconds video aimed at encouraging the use of a digital device (i.e. not in person contact) to meet with friends during the COVID-19 pandemic. Two friends meet via zoom instead of in person and share their experiencing supporting each other.
BEHAVIORAL	Informational sheet	An informational sheet to learn about the COVID-19 outbreak (standard).
BEHAVIORAL	Stigma awareness video intervention	A video aimed at sensitizing participants to COVID-19 related stigma. A COVID-19 + individual share their experience.

Timeline

• Start date: 2020-04-02
• Primary completion: 2020-04-16
• Completion: 2020-04-16
• First posted: 2021-02-02
• Last updated: 2021-02-02

Locations

1 site across 1 country: United States