Clinical trial NCT06108245: An Initial Test of Prototype Mobile App Interventions for Decluttering
Official title: The Impact of Values Clarification on Motivation to Declutter in People with Hoarding Problems: a Randomized Control Trial of a Prototype Mobile App Intervention
Study type: INTERVENTIONAL
Overall status: COMPLETED
Phase: NA
Conditions: Hoarding
Keywords: Clutter
Values Clarification
mHealth
Mobile app
Acceptance and Commitment Therapy
Lead sponsor: Mississippi State University
Sponsor class: OTHER
First posted: 2023-10-30
Enrollment: 116
Sex: ALL
Minimum age (years): 18
Standard ages: ADULT
OLDER_ADULT
Accepts healthy volunteers: no
Allocation: RANDOMIZED
Intervention model: PARALLEL
Intervention model description: Participants will be randomly assigned with equal likelihood to receive the values clarification prototype mobile application, the self-reflection prototype mobile application, or no treatment. After 8 weeks, participants who are in the no treatment group will be able to access both applications, and participants in either app group will be able to access the other app.
Primary purpose: TREATMENT

Brief summary: 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.

Detailed 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.

Eligibility criteria: 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.

Primary outcomes:
measure: Saving Inventory - Revised (SI-R; Frost et al., 2004)
timeFrame: Baseline, Posttreatment (4 weeks after baseline) and Follow-up (8 weeks after baseline)
Secondary outcomes:
measure: Sheehan Disability Scale (Sheehan, Harnett-Sheehan, & Raj, 1996)
timeFrame: Baseline, Posttreatment (4 weeks after baseline) and Follow-up (8 weeks after baseline)
measure: Activities of Daily Living in Hoarding Scale (ADL-H; Frost et al., 2013)
timeFrame: Baseline, Posttreatment (4 weeks after baseline) and Follow-up (8 weeks after baseline)
measure: Values Clarity Questionnaire (VCQ; McLoughlin et al., unpublished manuscript)
timeFrame: Baseline, Posttreatment (4 weeks after baseline) and Follow-up (8 weeks after baseline)
measure: Valuing Questionnaire (VQ; Smout et al., 2013)
timeFrame: Baseline, Posttreatment (4 weeks after baseline) and Follow-up (8 weeks after baseline)
measure: Acceptance and Action Questionnaire for Hoarding (AAQH; Krafft et al., 2019)
timeFrame: Baseline, Posttreatment (4 weeks after baseline) and Follow-up (8 weeks after baseline)
measure: Depression, Anxiety, and Stress Scales (DASS-21; Henry & Crawford, 2005)
timeFrame: Baseline, Posttreatment (4 weeks after baseline) and Follow-up (8 weeks after baseline)
measure: Satisfaction with Life Scale (SWLS; Diener et al., 1985)
timeFrame: Baseline, Posttreatment (4 weeks after baseline) and Follow-up (8 weeks after baseline)
measure: Random responding question (used in e.g. Krafft & Levin, 2021)
timeFrame: Baseline, Posttreatment (4 weeks after baseline) and Follow-up (8 weeks after baseline)
measure: Treatment Evaluation Inventory-Short Form (TEI-SF; Kelley et al., 1989)
timeFrame: Posttreatment (4 weeks after baseline)
measure: System Usability Scale (SUS; Bangor et al., 2008)
timeFrame: Posttreatment (4 weeks after baseline)
measure: Credibility/Expectancy Questionnaire (CEQ; Devilly & Borkovec, 2000)
timeFrame: After using first website session (approximately 0-1 weeks after baseline)
measure: Novel satisfaction item 1
timeFrame: Posttreatment (4 weeks after baseline)
measure: Novel satisfaction item 2
timeFrame: Posttreatment (4 weeks after baseline)
measure: Novel satisfaction item 3
timeFrame: Posttreatment (4 weeks after baseline)
measure: Novel satisfaction item 4
timeFrame: Posttreatment (4 weeks after baseline)
Other outcomes:
Locations:
city: Starkville
country: United States
facility: Mindfulness and Acceptance Processes Lab
state: Mississippi
Study officials:
affiliation: Mississippi State University
name: Jennifer Krafft, PhD
role: PRINCIPAL_INVESTIGATOR
References:
citation: Brooke, J. (1996). SUS: A "quick and dirty" usability scale. In P. W. Jordan, B. Thomas, B. A. Weerdmeester, & I. L. McClelland (Eds.), Usability evaluation in industry (pp. 189-194). Taylor & Francis.
citation: Devilly GJ, Borkovec TD. Psychometric properties of the credibility/expectancy questionnaire. J Behav Ther Exp Psychiatry. 2000 Jun;31(2):73-86. doi: 10.1016/s0005-7916(00)00012-4.
citation: Diener E, Emmons RA, Larsen RJ, Griffin S. The Satisfaction With Life Scale. J Pers Assess. 1985 Feb;49(1):71-5. doi: 10.1207/s15327752jpa4901_13.
citation: Frost RO, Hristova V, Steketee G, Tolin DF. Activities of Daily Living Scale in Hoarding Disorder. J Obsessive Compuls Relat Disord. 2013 Apr 1;2(2):85-90. doi: 10.1016/j.jocrd.2012.12.004. Epub 2012 Dec 25.
citation: Frost RO, Steketee G, Grisham J. Measurement of compulsive hoarding: saving inventory-revised. Behav Res Ther. 2004 Oct;42(10):1163-82. doi: 10.1016/j.brat.2003.07.006.
citation: Frost, R. O., Steketee, G., Tolin, D. F., & Renaud, S. (2008). Development and validation of the clutter image rating. Journal of Psychopathology and Behavioral Assessment, 30, 193-203.
citation: Henry JD, Crawford JR. The short-form version of the Depression Anxiety Stress Scales (DASS-21): construct validity and normative data in a large non-clinical sample. Br J Clin Psychol. 2005 Jun;44(Pt 2):227-39. doi: 10.1348/014466505X29657.
citation: Kelley, M. L., Heffer, R. W., Gresham, F. M., & Elliott, S. N. (1989). Development of a modified treatment evaluation inventory. Journal of psychopathology and behavioral assessment, 11, 235-247.
citation: Bangor, A., Kortum, P. T., & Miller, J. T. (2008). An empirical evaluation of the system usability scale. Intl. Journal of Human-Computer Interaction, 24(6), 574-594.
citation: Krafft, J., & Levin, M. E. (2021). Does the Cognitive Fusion Questionnaire measure more than frequency of negative thoughts?. Journal of Contextual Behavioral Science, 22, 63-67.
citation: Krafft, J., Ong, C. W., Twohig, M. P., & Levin, M. E. (2019). Assessing psychological inflexibility in hoarding: The Acceptance and Action Questionnaire for Hoarding (AAQH). Journal of Contextual Behavioral Science, 12, 234-242.
citation: McLoughlin, S., Stapleton, A., & Hochard, K. D. (2022). Development and preliminary validation of the Value Clarity Questionnaire. PsyArXiv. https://doi.org/10.31234/osf.io/u97q3
citation: Sheehan DV, Harnett-Sheehan K, Raj BA. The measurement of disability. Int Clin Psychopharmacol. 1996 Jun;11 Suppl 3:89-95. doi: 10.1097/00004850-199606003-00015.
citation: Smout, M., Davies, M., Burns, N., & Christie, A. (2014). Development of the valuing questionnaire (VQ). Journal of Contextual Behavioral Science, 3(3), 164-172.