NUYou:mHealth Intervention to Preserve and Promote Ideal Cardiovascular Health

Northwestern University

Status: Completed

Conditions: Cardiovascular Disease

Treatments: Behavioral: Environmental Cues; Behavioral: Social Support; Behavioral: Mobile Health Application; Behavioral: Educational Materials

Study type: Interventional

Funder types: Other

Identifiers

NCT02496728

14SFRN20480260

Details and patient eligibility

About

The purpose of the study is to investigate the preservation or promotion of health in students during the college years.

Full description

Freshman college students at Northwestern University will be cluster randomized to two groups based on their dorm. The intervention for one group will target smoking, physical activity, BMI and consumption of fruits and vegetables. The intervention in the second group will target traveling behavior, sexual risk behaviors, sunscreen use and hydration. Baseline health and lifestyle measures will be assessed for each participant prior to intervention. Health assessments will measure height, weight, fasting glucose, total cholesterol and carbon monoxide. The lifestyle measure will ask questions about physical activity, diet, alcohol and tobacco use, safe sex practices, driving habits, and sunscreen use. These same measures will be repeated during the fall of the students' sophomore and junior years.

Participants will be given a mobile application and encouraged to track some behaviors. In addition, participants will be asked to answer weekly questions regarding health behaviors.

Enrollment: 302 patients

Sex: All

Ages: 17 to 26 years old

Volunteers: Accepts Healthy Volunteers

Inclusion criteria

• Freshman at Northwestern University in the fall of 2015
• Live on campus
• Read, write and speak English
• Own an Iphone or Android smart phone

Exclusion criteria

• Pregnant or trying to become pregnant
• Established cardiovascular disease
• Unstable psychiatric or medical condition

Trial design

Primary purpose: Prevention

Allocation: Randomized

Interventional model: Parallel Assignment

Masking: Single Blind

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302 participants in 2 patient groups

Cardiovascular Health

Experimental group

Description:

Participants will be given the results of their health assessment and feedback regarding their health behaviors and overall health. Recommendations for change will be given if warranted. Participants will download the study's mobile health application on their smartphone. They will then be asked to report once a week about their health behaviors on the application. Participants will also be asked to self-monitor health behaviors that are not already at ideal levels using the study application (environmental cues). Participants will be asked to join a secret Facebook group where informational materials will be posted, participants can post about study health behaviors and social interaction around health behaviors can occur (social support and environmental cues).

Treatment:

Behavioral: Educational Materials

Behavioral: Social Support

Behavioral: Mobile Health Application

Behavioral: Environmental Cues

Whole Health

Active Comparator group

Description:

Participants will be given the results of their health assessment. They will then receive educational materials about sunscreen use, safe sex, hydration and vehicular safety. Participants will download the study's mobile health application on their smartphone. They will then be asked to report once a week about their health behaviors on the application. Participants will also be asked to self-monitor how much water they drink using the study application. Participants will be asked to join a secret Facebook group where informational materials will be posted, they can post about study health behaviors and social interaction around health behaviors can occur (social support and environmental cues).

Treatment:

Behavioral: Educational Materials

Behavioral: Social Support

Behavioral: Mobile Health Application

Behavioral: Environmental Cues