NCT06801132

The Effectiveness of an Online Self-Delivered Death Anxiety Intervention

The Effectiveness of an Online Self-Delivered Death Anxiety Intervention: A Pilot Randomized Controlled Trial

• Status: Completed
• Phase: N/A
• Study type: Interventional
• Enrollment: 47 (actual)
• Sponsor: Peking University · Academic / Other
• Sex: All
• Age: 18 Years – 65 Years
• Healthy volunteers: Not accepted

Summary

The goal of this clinical trial is to examine the effectiveness of the online self-delivered death anxiety intervention developed by our team in the general population with a randomized controlled trial. The study will recruit 50 participants, with 25 randomized to the death anxiety intervention group and 25 randomized to the control group (waiting list). The online intervention on death anxiety consists of 4 phases that take about 2 hours in total. The primary outcome DAS (Death Anxiety Scale) and DABBS (Death Anxiety Beliefs and Behaviors Scale) will be administered on baseline, post-treatment, 1-week follow-up, and 2-week follow-up assessments.

Conditions

• Death Anxiety

Interventions

Type	Name	Description
BEHAVIORAL	Online self-delivered death anxiety intervention	The online self-guided death anxiety intervention developed in this study is based on the Death Education and CBT framework. It took approximately two hours to complete the full intervention. The main content includes: 1. Emotional reactions and behavioral manifestations about death, fear management theories, and Chinese cultural attitudes toward death; 2. Imagine what you would like to say to yourself at the end of your life, and learn about various attitudes towards death through numerous examples; 3. Expressive writing, with moderate emotional exposure to stimulate reflection, accompanied by breathing exercises and positive thinking about death, to improve tolerance and control of death anxiety, and finally to correct biased perceptions by examining bad beliefs about death; 4. Prioritize the importance of things and make a practical action plan to enrich your life.
BEHAVIORAL	Waiting-List (WL) condition	Participants assigned to WL will be asked not to use our death anxiety intervention or seek additional help related to death anxiety during the 1-week intervention period. After the one-month follow-up of the experimental group, the WL group will receive the same intervention for death anxiety. WL participants will also be given contact information to use in case of increasing distress.

Timeline

• Start date: 2025-02-14
• Primary completion: 2025-04-04
• Completion: 2025-04-04
• First posted: 2025-01-30
• Last updated: 2026-03-16

Locations

1 site across 1 country: China