Well-being app to support young people during the COVID-19 pandemic: randomised controlled trial.

OBJECTIVES: To evaluate the efficacy and acceptability of 'Whitu: seven ways in seven days', a well-being application (app) for young people. DESIGN: Prospective randomised controlled trial of Whitu against waitlist control, with 45 participants in each arm. PARTICIPANTS: 90 New Zealand young people aged 16-30 recruited via a social media advertising campaign. SETTING: Participants' homes. INTERVENTIONS: Developed during the COVID-19 pandemic, and refined from a prototype version that was evaluated during a smaller qualitative study, 'Whitu: seven ways in seven days' is a well-being app that, as its name suggests, contains seven modules to help young people (1) recognise and rate emotions, (2) learn relaxation and mindfulness, (3) practice self-compassion and (4) gratitude, (5) connect with others, (6) care for their physical health and (7) engage in goal-setting. It can be completed within a week or as desired. MAIN OUTCOME MEASURES: Primary outcomes were changes in well-being on the WHO 5-item Well-Being Index and Short Warwick-Edinburgh Mental Well-Being Scale. Secondary outcomes were changes in depression on the Centre for Epidemiological Studies Depression Scale, anxiety on the Generalised Anxiety Disorder 7-item Scale, self-compassion on the Self Compassion Scale-Short Form, stress on the 10-item Perceived Stress Scale, sleep on the single-item Sleep Quality Scale and user engagement on the end-user version of the Mobile Application Rating Scale and via qualitative feedback during an online survey. Outcomes were evaluated at baseline, 4 weeks (primary study endpoint) and 3 months, and analysed using linear mixed models with group, time and a group-time interaction. RESULTS: At 4 weeks, participants in the Whitu group experienced significantly higher emotional (Mean difference (md) 13.19 (3.96 to 22.42); p=0.005) and mental (md 2.44 (0.27 to 4.61); p=0.027) well-being, self-compassion (md 0.56 (0.28 to 0.83); p<0.001) and sleep (md 1.13 (0.24 to 2.02); p=0.018), and significantly lower stress (md -4.69 (-7.61 to -1.76); p=0.002) and depression (md -5.34 (-10.14 to -0.53); p=0.030), compared with the waitlist controls. Group differences remained statistically significant at 3 months for all outcomes. Symptoms of anxiety were also lower in the intervention group at 4 weeks (p=0.096), with statistically significant differences at 3 months (md -2.31 (-4.54 to -0.08); p=0.042). Usability of Whitu was high (subjective ratings of 4.45 (0.72) and 4.38 (0.79) out of 5 at 4 weeks and 3 months, respectively) and qualitative feedback indicated individual and cultural acceptability of the app. CONCLUSIONS: Given the evolving psychological burden of the COVID-19 pandemic, Whitu could provide a clinically effective and scalable means of improving the well-being, mental health and resilience of young people. Replication of current findings with younger individuals and in other settings is planned. TRIAL REGISTRATION NUMBER: Australian New Zealand Clinical Trials Registry (ACTRN12620000516987).

Investigating the effect of an online self-compassion for weight management (SC4WM) intervention on self-compassion, eating behaviour, physical activity and body weight in adults seeking to manage weight: protocol for a randomised controlled trial.

INTRODUCTION: Individual weight management, defined as engaging in behaviours to maintain or lose weight, can improve health and well-being. However, numerous factors influence weight management outcomes, such as genetics, biology, stress, the social and physical environment. Consequently, weight management can be hard. Self-compassion, described as treating oneself kindly in times of failure or distress, has shown promise in improving weight management outcomes. The objectives of this study are twofold: (1) to examine the efficacy of an online self-compassion for weight management (SC4WM) intervention coupled with an online commercial weight management programme (WW Weight Watchers reimagined) with increasing self-compassion and improving weight management outcomes (eating behaviour, physical activity and body weight) in comparison with the WW programme only and (2) to explore whether improvements in weight management outcomes are moderated by eating restraint, weight self-stigma, perceived stress and psychological coping. METHODS AND ANALYSIS: To achieve these objectives, 240 participants seeking to manage their weight were randomised to either an online behavioural commercial weight management programme (WW) or the online WW +SC4 WM intervention. Validated measures of self-compassion, stress, weight self-stigma, eating restraint, psychological coping and weight management outcomes were administered online at baseline, 4 weeks and at a 12-week follow-up. ETHICS AND DISSEMINATION: Ethics has been granted by the University of Auckland Health Research Ethics committee. Results will be communicated in peer-review journals, conferences and a doctoral thesis. If effective in increasing self-compassion and improving weight management outcomes, the intervention could be made more widely available to supplement behavioural weight management programmes. TRIAL REGISTRATION NUMBER: ACTRN12621000580875; Pre-results.