An Initial Test of Prototype Mobile App Interventions for Decluttering

Mississippi State University

Status: Completed

Conditions: Hoarding

Treatments: Behavioral: Values Clarification Mobile Application; Behavioral: Self-Reflection Mobile Application

Study type: Interventional

Funder types: Other

Identifiers

NCT06108245

IRB-23-253

Details and patient eligibility

About

The aim of the study is to investigate whether values clarification writing prompts administered via a prototype mobile application can help enhance motivation and facilitate decluttering in individuals with hoarding problems. This randomized control trial will help to (1) assess whether values clarification can improve outcomes in hoarding treatment by increasing motivation, (2) clarify which specific values clarification procedures are most beneficial, and (3) evaluate the impact of values clarification on overall symptoms and well-being. Participants will be randomly assigned to either the experimental group (receiving the values clarification intervention), psychological placebo group (self-reflection intervention), or the no intervention waitlist group.

Full description

This randomized control trial study aims to investigate the efficacy of a values clarification prototype mobile application intervention in enhancing motivation and facilitating decluttering in individuals with clinical levels of hoarding symptoms. Participants will be recruited using a variety of recruitment methods (e.g., Google Ads, posts on relevant online groups such as Facebook groups, posting flyers, and provider referrals). Interested participants will first complete a pre-screen asking about their age, country of residence, and whether they own an appropriate mobile device (i.e. iOS or Android). Eligible participants, who must be at least 18 years old and residing in the United States, will be provided with a consent form to sign and then directed to further screening to determine whether they meet the clinical cutoff for hoarding symptoms. Individuals who decline to participate or are screened as ineligible will be screened out and provided with a brief list of other resources they may access for clutter/hoarding problems. The researchers also reserve the right to screen individuals out if they are suspected to be bots or invalid participants. Individuals who consent and are screened as eligible will be redirected to complete a baseline survey and then randomly assigned to one of three groups with equal probability: (1) Experimental group with the values clarification mobile application, (2) psychological placebo group with the self-reflection mobile application, and (3) no-treatment waitlist group. Four weeks after baseline, participants will be asked to complete a post-treatment survey and eight weeks after baseline, participants will be asked to complete a final, follow-up survey. The no-treatment waitlist participants will be given the opportunity to download and use either prototype mobile app, and participants assigned to use one of the apps will be given the opportunity to use the alternative app.

Enrollment: 116 patients

Sex: All

Ages: 18+ years old

Volunteers: No Healthy Volunteers

Inclusion criteria

1. 18 years or older.
2. Living in the USA.
3. Owning an Android or iOS mobile device.
4. Meeting the clinical cutoff scores for the Saving Inventory-Revised and Clutter Image Rating scales.
5. Seeking help for clutter and/or hoarding.
6. Interested in testing a self-help prototype mobile app intervention.

Exclusion criteria

1. 17 years or younger.
2. Living outside the USA.
3. Not owning an Android or iOS mobile device.
4. Scoring below the clinical cutoff scores for the Saving Inventory-Revised and Clutter Image Rating scales.
5. Not seeking help for clutter and/or hoarding.
6. Not interested in testing a self-help prototype mobile app intervention.
7. Not having the fluency in English sufficient to understand study materials.

Trial design

Primary purpose: Treatment

Allocation: Randomized

Interventional model: Parallel Assignment

Masking: None (Open label)

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116 participants in 3 patient groups, including a placebo group

Values Clarification Condition

Experimental group

Description:

Participants will be asked to respond to values clarification prompts twice a day over 28 days \[4 weeks\]. In each session, participants will receive a randomly assigned writing prompt from a pool of four categories: hierarchical, conditional, distinction, and perspective-taking prompts. In the initial session, participants will be asked to respond to a brief set of questions pertaining to their hoarding behavior in the past 12 hours and their motivation to declutter right now. From that point on, participants will respond to a brief set of questions before each writing prompt pertaining to their hoarding behaviors in the time since the previous writing prompt. After the writing prompt, they will be asked about how motivated they are to declutter right now. Each writing prompt is anticipated to take up to 10 minutes to complete and participants will receive notifications to use the app twice daily in addition email reminders twice a week to engage with the app.

Treatment:

Behavioral: Values Clarification Mobile Application

Self-Reflection Condition

Placebo Comparator group

Description:

Participants in this condition will be asked to respond to a set of randomly selected self-reflection prompts twice a day over 28 days \[4 weeks\]. As with the experimental condition, participants in the initial session will be asked to respond to a brief set of questions pertaining to their hoarding behavior in the past 12 hours and their motivation to declutter right now. From that point on, participants will be asked to respond to a brief set of questions before each writing prompt pertaining to their hoarding behaviors in the time since the previous writing prompt. After the writing prompt, they will be asked about how motivated they are to declutter right now. Each writing prompt is anticipated to take up to 10 minutes to complete, and participants will receive notifications to use the app twice daily in addition to email reminders twice a week to engage with the app.

Treatment:

Behavioral: Self-Reflection Mobile Application

Waitlist Condition

No Intervention group

Description:

Participants assigned to the waitlist will not receive access to any intervention for 8 weeks. After 8 weeks, they will receive access to either the values clarification or self-reflection mobile application.