Writing About Experiences and Health in Older Adults

Sponsor

University of California, Los Angeles (Other)

Overall Status

Completed

CT.gov ID

NCT02472379

Collaborator

National Institute on Aging (NIA) (NIH)

Enrollment

Location

Arms

Duration (Months)

4.6

Patients Per Site Per Month

Study Details

Study Description

Brief Summary

UCLA researchers looking for healthy females (age 60+) to participate in a study investigating how writing about your experiences may be related to your health.

Once a week for 6 weeks, participants will write about their experiences and fill out online questionnaires. Participants will also come to the UCLA campus for blood draws and to fill out questionnaires 3 times: once prior to the 6-week writing period, once immediately after the 6-week period, and once 2-months after the writing period.

Condition or Disease	Intervention/Treatment	Phase
Social Psychology	Behavioral: Writing: Group 1 Other: Writing: Group 2	N/A

Study Design

Study Type:

Interventional

Actual Enrollment :

78 participants

Allocation:

Randomized

Intervention Model:

Parallel Assignment

Masking:

Double (Participant, Investigator)

Primary Purpose:

Basic Science

Official Title:

Writing About Experiences and Health in Older Adults

Study Start Date :

Oct 1, 2015

Actual Primary Completion Date :

Jan 1, 2017

Actual Study Completion Date :

Mar 1, 2017

Arms and Interventions

Arm	Intervention/Treatment
Experimental: Writing: Group 1 Subjects will be asked to write about experiences with familiar individuals in their lives.	Behavioral: Writing: Group 1 Writing about experiences with familiar individuals in their lives, once a week for 6 weeks.
Placebo Comparator: Writing: Group 2 Subjects will be asked to write about experiences with familiar places in their lives.	Other: Writing: Group 2 Writing about experiences with familiar places, once a week for 6 weeks.

Arm

Intervention/Treatment

Experimental: Writing: Group 1

Subjects will be asked to write about experiences with familiar individuals in their lives.

Behavioral: Writing: Group 1

Writing about experiences with familiar individuals in their lives, once a week for 6 weeks.

Placebo Comparator: Writing: Group 2

Subjects will be asked to write about experiences with familiar places in their lives.

Other: Writing: Group 2

Writing about experiences with familiar places, once a week for 6 weeks.

Outcome Measures

Primary Outcome Measures

Inflammatory activity [baseline, post 6-week writing period, 2-months post-writing period]
Changes in proinflammatory cytokine and proinflammatory gene expression from blood draws
Health and well-being (self-report) [baseline, post 6-week writing period, 2-months post-writing period]
Changes in self-report measures of health (e.g., pain, sleep) and well-being (e.g., social support, depression)

Eligibility Criteria

Criteria

Ages Eligible for Study:

60 Years to 100 Years

Sexes Eligible for Study:

Female

Accepts Healthy Volunteers:

Yes

Inclusion Criteria:

Healthy adults 60 years and older

Exclusion Criteria:

Following a structured telephone interview, participants with the following conditions will not be able to participate:

current smokers
active, uncontrolled medical disorders
chronic infection (e.g., Hepatitis C, HIV)
use of certain medications (e.g., hypnotic and psychotropic medication, steroid use, opioid use)
psychiatric disorders (e.g., current major depression, bipolar disorder)
body mass index (BMI) greater than 35

Other exclusion criteria may apply.

Contacts and Locations

Locations

	Site	City	State	Country	Postal Code
1	UCLA Clinical & Translational Research Center (CTRC)	Los Angeles	California	United States

Sponsors and Collaborators

University of California, Los Angeles
National Institute on Aging (NIA)

Investigators

Principal Investigator: Naomi I. Eisenberger, Ph.D., University of California, Los Angeles
Principal Investigator: Mona Moieni, M.A., University of California, Los Angeles