Social Activity, Loneliness and Stigma During COVID-19 Outbreak
Condition: Covid19; Fear; Loneliness
MeSH terms: COVID-19
Study type: Interventional

Summary: 
      The overall goal of this study is to evaluate the association of quarantine measures for
      COVID-19 and perceived anxiety, stigma and loneliness and to evaluate the efficacy of
      interventions in reducing anxiety, loneliness and perception of stigma induced by
      self-isolation during the outbreak.

      Specific Aims:

      In the proposed study, participants will include members of the United States general
      population who will be randomly assigned to either (a) a vignette to learn about the COVID-19
      outbreak, (b) a vignette to learn about the COVID-19 outbreak AND a video aimed at
      encouraging the use of a digital device (i.e. not in person contact) to meet with friends,
      (c) a vignette to learn about the COVID-19 outbreak AND a video aimed at sensitizing
      participants to COVID-19 related stigma, (d) Control arm. Web-based self-report
      questionnaires will be conducted to compare interventions and control groups. The short and
      low-cost online module will allow recruitment of a large sample of people.

      Hypotheses:

      (1) the video-based intervention groups will demonstrate lower rates of anxiety and
      loneliness than vignette and control groups, (2) the video-based group that presents an
      individual with COVID-19 will demonstrate lower rate of stigma than other groups.
    

Detailed description: 
      Currently, the world is experiencing a Coronavirus outbreak, COVID-19, which originated in
      mainland China in December 2019, spread rapidly to South Korea and Europe, Italy in
      particular, between January and March of 2020 and is currently spreading in all continents
      and has been recognized as a pandemic. It is of high importance to monitor how the trends in
      COVID-19 outbreak are shaping the social contexts and norms across communities and families.
      In a time in which individuals all over the world are experiencing quarantine, it is
      important to evaluate the potential surge of the phenomena of social anxiety, stigma, and of
      perceived fear and loneliness. Furthermore, it is critical to study interventions that aim to
      reduce each of these. The overall goal of this study is to evaluate the association of
      quarantine measures for COVID-19 and perceived anxiety, stigma and loneliness and to evaluate
      the efficacy of interventions in reducing anxiety, loneliness and perception of stigma
      induced by self-isolation during the outbreak. The hypotheses will be tested using ANOVA and
      multinomial logistic regressions. An alpha level of 0.01 will be used to account for multiple
      testing.
    

Intervention name(s): Digital social activity video intervention; Informational sheet; Stigma awareness video intervention
Intervention type(s): Behavioral; Behavioral; Behavioral
Intervention description(s): A 150 seconds video aimed at encouraging the use of a digital device (i.e. not in person contact) to meet with friends during the COVID-19 pandemic. Two friends meet via zoom instead of in person and share their experiencing supporting each other.; An informational sheet to learn about the COVID-19 outbreak (standard).; A video aimed at sensitizing participants to COVID-19 related stigma. A COVID-19 + individual share their experience.
Other intervention name(s): Vignette
Allocation: Randomized
Intervention model: Factorial Assignment
Masking: None (Open Label)
Primary purpose: Prevention
Keywords: Covid19 related stigma, fear and loneliness