Clinical trial NCT05310747: Can Exposure to Inclusive Virtual Art Decrease Pain and Social Disconnection Among Individuals Living With Chronic Pain?
Official title: Can Exposure to Inclusive Virtual Art Decrease Pain and Social Disconnection Among Individuals Living With Chronic Pain?
Study type: INTERVENTIONAL
Overall status: COMPLETED
Phase: NA
Conditions: Chronic Pain
Social Disconnection
Keywords: Pain
Social Disconnection
Museum
Virtual museum
Lead sponsor: University of California, Davis
Sponsor class: OTHER
First posted: 2022-04-05
Enrollment: 311
Sex: ALL
Minimum age (years): 18
Standard ages: ADULT
OLDER_ADULT
Accepts healthy volunteers: no
Allocation: RANDOMIZED
Intervention model: FACTORIAL
Intervention model description: Eligible individuals will be randomized to one of 4 groups:

1. Artwork present + Social connection prime high
2. Artwork present + Social connection prime low
3. Artwork absent + Social connection prime high
4. Artwork absent + Social connection prime low
5. Hanging control group - no exposure to any independent variables (i.e. artwork: present or absent; social connection prime: high or low)
Primary purpose: TREATMENT

Brief summary: The proposed study is an experimental intervention to test for the effects of exposure to art by means of a virtual museum visit. It examines the fundamental question of whether exposure to virtual art can alleviate pain. Google Arts \& Culture has digitized the collections of over 2,000 museums, art galleries, and other cultural institutions. The platform is free and allows 'visitors' to explore art from around the world. For this study, the PIs have chosen artwork from this collection and created a virtual museum gallery such that research participants will visit the museum with or without art (i.e., we will remove all art from the virtual galleries). In addition, we hypothesize that individuals primed to experience social connection prior to art exposure will experience lower perceived social disconnection and pain than those who are not primed.

Detailed description: Research Design: 2 (virtual artwork exposure: present, absent) x 2 (prime: social connection prime: high, low) factorial experiment with a hanging control group (4 cells plus 1 control group, for a total of 5 cells) and 2 repeated measures. A priori power analysis using G\*Power showed that the required sample size for a 5-group repeated measures experiment with 2 measurement times with 1-B error probability = .80 that expected small effect with a size of d = .10 and a significance level of p = .05 was a total of 305 participants (61 participants per cell).

Eligible individuals will be offered informed consent documentation via the StudyPages platform and then will be randomized to their study group:

1. Artwork present + Social connection prime high
2. Artwork present + Social connection prime low
3. Artwork absent + Social connection prime high
4. Artwork absent + Social connection prime low
5. Hanging control group - no exposure to any independent variables (i.e. artwork: present or absent; social connection prime: high or low)

Participants will fill out pre-intervention scales (pain intensity and unpleasantness; perceived social disconnection) prior to their virtual museum experience. Participants will then visit a virtual art museum gallery for 10 minutes or receive no exposure if they are in the hanging control group. In the artwork present condition, the virtual museum will feature paintings as part of an exhibition. In the artwork absent condition, paintings will be removed and thus the virtual museum will be empty. In the high social connection prime condition participants will be assigned to write an essay about a person and situation that made them feel valued, seen, and heard. In the low social connection prime condition participants will be assigned to write about a person and situation that made them feel ignored and not very valued. After 10 minutes within their condition participants will complete a post-intervention survey.

In addition, written responses to the social connection primes and museum visit data (e.g., user movement, object interaction, and perceptions about artwork in the museum) will be collected and analyzed.

Eligibility criteria: Inclusion Criteria:

* read and write in English language
* chronic moderate to severe pain (≥ 6 months in duration; ≥ 4 in response to the question, "on average this week my pain intensity has been?" on a 0-10 NRS)
* lonely (≥ 4 on the 3-item Loneliness Scale)
* access to an electronic device with internet connection in order to participate in the study

Exclusion Criteria:

* dementia
* adults unable to consent

Primary outcomes:
measure: Social disconnection
timeFrame: Post-intervention (immediately)/Day 1
Secondary outcomes:
measure: Pain unpleasantness
timeFrame: Post-intervention (immediately)/Day 1
measure: Pain intensity
timeFrame: Post-intervention (immediately)/Day 1
measure: Change in pain during intervention
timeFrame: Post-intervention (immediately)/Day 1
measure: Percent change in pain during intervention
timeFrame: Post-intervention (immediately)/Day 1
measure: Perceptions of the artwork related to the positivity of the social world
timeFrame: Post-intervention (immediately)/Day 1
measure: Perceptions of the artwork related to connection to the social world
timeFrame: Post-intervention (immediately)/Day 1
measure: Perceptions of the artwork related to inclusion in the social world
timeFrame: Post-intervention (immediately)/Day 1
measure: Perceptions of the artwork related to positivity of social relationships
timeFrame: Post-intervention (immediately)/Day 1
Other outcomes:
measure: Museum visit data - User Movement
timeFrame: During intervention
measure: Museum Visit Data - Object Interaction
timeFrame: During intervention
Locations:
city: Sacramento
country: United States
facility: University of California, Davis
state: California
Study officials:
References: