CircaHealth Development and Evaluation

University of Miami

Status: Completed

Conditions: Circadian Rhythm; Health Behavior; Health Knowledge, Attitudes, Practice

Treatments: Other: Sleep hygiene materials; Other: CircaHealth: a course on circadian rhythms and health

Study type: Interventional

Funder types: Other

Identifiers

NCT03835572

20180932

Details and patient eligibility

About

This study evaluates the feasibility, acceptability, and efficacy of an online education course about circadian rhythms and health. Half of participants will be enrolled into the online course and the other half will receive materials on sleep hygiene as a control.

Full description

This is a pilot randomized controlled study that aims to develop CircaHealth: an online course on practices, known as circadian hygiene, that promote circadian rhythm alignment and minimize circadian rhythm misalignment. The project also will determine the feasibility, acceptability, and preliminary effects of CircaHealth in improving circadian rhythm related measures in University of Miami Miller School of Medicine medical students.

The educational videos will be incorporated into a six-module online course which contains additional educational and behavior modification tools. Medical students (n = 40) will be recruited via email and randomized to receive CircaHealth or materials from the National Sleep Foundation and/or the American Academy of Sleep Medicine. Sleep, mood, and circadian hygiene knowledge, behaviors, and attitudes will be assessed at baseline and four weeks post intervention. Feasibility will be determined by CircaHealth module completion rates, and acceptability will be assessed via a self-report survey. Changes in sleep quality measures between groups will determine the preliminary efficacy of CircaHealth.

Enrollment: 54 patients

Sex: All

Volunteers: Accepts Healthy Volunteers

Inclusion and exclusion criteria

Inclusion Criteria:

• Medical students, 1st through 4th year, at the University of Miami Miller School of Medicine willing to participate in surveys and the CircaHealth course.

Trial design

Primary purpose: Treatment

Allocation: Randomized

Interventional model: Parallel Assignment

Masking: Single Blind

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54 participants in 2 patient groups

CircaHealth

Experimental group

Description:

The CircaHealth group will receive access to an online educational module on circadian rhythms and health as their intervention. Every week for six weeks, these participants will receive a new module that contains videos, quizzes, behavioral modification checklists, and journal prompts.

Treatment:

Other: CircaHealth: a course on circadian rhythms and health

Sleep hygiene materials

Active Comparator group

Description:

The control group will receive publicly available materials about sleep hygiene from the National Sleep Foundation and/or the American Academy of Sleep Medicine every week for six weeks as their intervention.

Treatment:

Other: Sleep hygiene materials