LonelinessTweet-S2NCT03865498
Twitter Based Social Support for Hispanic and Black Dementia Caregivers
A study testing Twitter for Hispanic caregivers and Twitter for African American caregivers in people with Loneliness and Emotional Stress, run by Columbia University at 1 site in United States.
Trial summary
The prevalence of dementia is higher in Hispanics and African Americans than non-Hispanic Whites. Moreover, dementia caregivers often experience loneliness as well decreased health status. Read more about this study
- Who is it for?
- Ages 18 years and olderHealthy volunteers can take part
- Conditions the study is for
- Loneliness, Emotional Stress
- What is being tested?
- Twitter for Hispanic caregivers and Twitter for African American caregivers
- Type of treatment
- Lifestyle or therapy programme
- Could I receive a placebo?
- No, everyone receives an active treatment
- How many people
- 966 participants
- Where
- 1 siteUnited States
- Study dates
- 12 Jan 2022to 20 Nov 2023
- Phase
- Interventional
- Are there results?
- Yes, posted in the registrySummary in the doctors' view
Key requirements
Who can take part, as listed by the sponsor. Only the study team can confirm whether you are eligible, so take this list to your doctor.
- Ages 18 years and older
- All sexes
- Healthy volunteers accepted
- Adult, Older adult
Who may be able to join
- 18 years of age or older
- Black or Hispanic, living in the U.S. including the U.S. territories
- a dementia caregiver with any duration, able to speak English or Spanish/bilingual
- must agree to terms of conditions of use and privacy policy and rules of one of the two dementia caregiver network (Hispanic @dcnh, Black @dcnaab), the Twitter user agreement of the terms of service, Twitter privacy policy and Twitter rules including intellectual property, violence, misconduct, abuse behavior, private information and spam and security
- use a smartphone or a feature phone (i.e., a cell phone with text messaging)
Who cannot join
- do not have de-identified Twitter account, children, not a dementia family caregiver
Trial locations and contacts
1 site in 1 country.
United States1 site
Columbia University Irving Medical Center
New York, New York, 10032
About this study
Official title: Using Twitter to Enhance the Social Support of Hispanic and Black Dementia Caregivers
The prevalence of dementia is higher in Hispanics and African Americans than non-Hispanic Whites. Moreover, dementia caregivers often experience loneliness as well decreased health status. The expansion of social media use among Hispanics and African Americans, particularly Twitter - a short message service - offers great promise for improving social support. This study aims to evaluate changes of discussion topics, sentiment and networking styles (i.e., number of followers) among anonymous followers of our two Twitter networks; the African American/Black dementia caregiver group and the Hispanic dementia caregiver group.
Read the detailed description
The study will utilize Twitter networks to post a daily message for dementia caregivers for a year, and set up a monthly group chat.
- Conditions
- Loneliness, Emotional Stress
- Being tested
- Twitter for Hispanic caregivers, Twitter for African American caregivers
- Keywords
- Family Caregivers, Dementia
- Medical subject headings
- Stress, Psychological, Dementia
What participants receive
What participants receive. In a randomised study each person is assigned to one group by chance.
Twitter for Hispanic caregiversBehavioural
This group will be asked to follow and use (i.e., retweet, reply, like) our Hispanic Twitter network for social support
Twitter for African American caregiversBehavioural
This group will be asked to follow and use (i.e., retweet, reply, like) our African American Twitter network for social support.
| Study group | Role | What they receive |
|---|---|---|
| Hispanic dementia caregivers | Experimental | De-identified followers of our Hispanic dementia caregiver Twitter network will receive messages from the network (Twitter for Hispanic caregivers' intervention). Receives: Behavioral: Twitter for Hispanic caregivers |
| African American dementia caregivers | Experimental | De-identified followers of our African American dementia caregiver Twitter network will receive messages from the network (Twitter for African American caregivers' intervention). Receives: Behavioral: Twitter for African American caregivers |
What is being measured
The primary outcome is the main question the study is designed to answer.
Number of Participants Who do Not Engage in Twitter Activities
Macro level: The number of participants who do not engage in Twitter activities (i.e., retweet, reply, like, post) within the Twitter network for dementia caregivers
Measured: 12 months
Emotional Valence Score
Emotional valence (macro level) detected from text data (e.g., "This is so helpful": emotion score +4; "I am sad": emotion score -6). Emotional valence score ranges from -10 to +10; -10 indicates negative valence and +10 indicates positive valence.
Measured: 12 months
Secondary outcomes (2)
Number of Auto-detected Small Groups
Meso level: number of small group automatically detected based on Twitter activities (i.e., retweet); for example 0 means no small-group activity detected, 7 small groups mean seven distinct cliques/grouping activities detected where the users are communicating, supporting and responding within our Twitter network.
Measured: 12 months
Percentage of Balanced Triads
Micro level: % balanced communication triad, 2 or 3 people responding and communicating with equal or similar frequency; 0 reflects non-optimal communication indicating domination, avoidance or ignorance. 8 means there are 8% triads who maintain healthy communication.
Measured: 12 months
Timeline
From the start of the study to its completion; the mark is today. Estimated dates are the sponsor’s plan.
- First posted7 Mar 2019
- Study start12 Jan 2022
- Primary completion31 Oct 2023
- Study completion20 Nov 2023
Resources
- Official record on ClinicalTrials.govThe registry entry this page is built from, with its full change history.
- Posted resultsParticipant flow, outcome measures and adverse events reported by the sponsor.
- Other trials for LonelinessStudies of the same condition, open and under way.
- More trials run by Columbia UniversityThe sponsor's other registered studies.
- What the trial phases meanHow a treatment moves from first tests in people to approval.
More details
For doctors and researchers: how the study is designed, who runs it, and its registry IDs.
Study design
- Study type
- Interventional
- Phase
- Phase N/A
- Primary purpose
- Supportive care
- Allocation
- Non-randomised
- Intervention model
- Parallel groups
- Masking
- None (open label)
- Enrolment
- 966 participants (actual)
Sponsor and investigators
- Lead sponsor
- Columbia University
- Sponsor type
- University, hospital or other
- Collaborators
- Department of Health and Human Services, National Institute on Aging (NIA)
- Responsible party
- Principal investigator, Sunmoo Yoon, Columbia University
- Investigators
- Sunmoo Yoon, PhD, Principal investigator, Associate Research Scientist in the Department of Medicine
IDs, dates and publications
- ClinicalTrials.gov ID
- NCT03865498
- Sponsor's protocol ID
- AAAS3305
- Other IDs
- R01AG060929-01
- Acronym
- Tweet-S2
- Status last verified
- Dec 2024
- First submitted
- 4 Mar 2019
- Last updated
- 15 Jan 2025
- Results posted
- Yes, on ClinicalTrials.gov
- Data monitoring committee
- No
- FDA-regulated drug
- No
- FDA-regulated device
- No
- Individual data sharing
- No
Study at a glance
From the registry record, last updated by the sponsor on 15 Jan 2025. Recruitment status is as the sponsor reported it: confirm with the study team.
- Official title
- Using Twitter to Enhance the Social Support of Hispanic and Black Dementia Caregivers
- ClinicalTrials.gov ID
- NCT03865498
- Acronym / sponsor ID
- Tweet-S2 / AAAS3305
- Conditions
- Loneliness, Emotional Stress
- Keywords
- Family Caregivers, Dementia
- Study type
- Interventional
- Recruitment status
- Completed
- Enrolment
- 966 participants (actual)
- Lead sponsor
- Columbia UniversityUniversity, hospital or other
- Collaborators
- Department of Health and Human Services, National Institute on Aging (NIA)
- Study start
- 12 Jan 2022 (actual)
- Primary completion
- 31 Oct 2023 (actual)
- Study completion
- 20 Nov 2023 (actual)
- First posted
- 7 Mar 2019 (actual)
- Results
- Posted 15 Jan 2025
Clinical summary
The research question as the sponsor registered it. This describes what the study plans to test, not what it found.
The prevalence of dementia is higher in Hispanics and African Americans than non-Hispanic Whites. Moreover, dementia caregivers often experience loneliness as well decreased health status. The expansion of social media use among Hispanics and African Americans, particularly Twitter - a short message service - offers great promise for improving social support. This study aims to evaluate changes of discussion topics, sentiment and networking styles (i.e., number of followers) among anonymous followers of our two Twitter networks; the African American/Black dementia caregiver group and the Hispanic dementia caregiver group.
Detailed description
The study will utilize Twitter networks to post a daily message for dementia caregivers for a year, and set up a monthly group chat.
Study design
- Primary purpose
- Supportive care
- Allocation
- Non-randomised
- Intervention model
- Parallel groups
- Masking
- None (open label)
- Number of arms
- 2
| Arm | Type | Receives |
|---|---|---|
| Hispanic dementia caregivers | Experimental | Behavioral: Twitter for Hispanic caregiversDe-identified followers of our Hispanic dementia caregiver Twitter network will receive messages from the network (Twitter for Hispanic caregivers' intervention). |
| African American dementia caregivers | Experimental | Behavioral: Twitter for African American caregiversDe-identified followers of our African American dementia caregiver Twitter network will receive messages from the network (Twitter for African American caregivers' intervention). |
Who may qualify
- Ages
- 18 years and older
- Sex
- All
- Healthy volunteers
- Accepted
- Age groups
- Adult, Older adult
Key inclusion criteria (5 listed)
- 18 years of age or older
- Black or Hispanic, living in the U.S. including the U.S. territories
- a dementia caregiver with any duration, able to speak English or Spanish/bilingual
- must agree to terms of conditions of use and privacy policy and rules of one of the two dementia caregiver network (Hispanic @dcnh, Black @dcnaab), the Twitter user agreement of the terms of service, Twitter privacy policy and Twitter rules including intellectual property, violence, misconduct, abuse behavior, private information and spam and security
- use a smartphone or a feature phone (i.e., a cell phone with text messaging)
Key exclusion criteria (1 listed)
- do not have de-identified Twitter account, children, not a dementia family caregiver
Eligibility is decided by the study team after screening; this overview does not establish that a patient qualifies. Full inclusion and exclusion criteria.
Interventions
| Intervention | Type | Arms |
|---|---|---|
| Twitter for Hispanic caregiversThis group will be asked to follow and use (i.e., retweet, reply, like) our Hispanic Twitter network for social support | Behavioural | Hispanic dementia caregivers |
| Twitter for African American caregiversThis group will be asked to follow and use (i.e., retweet, reply, like) our African American Twitter network for social support. | Behavioural | African American dementia caregivers |
Primary outcome
Number of Participants Who do Not Engage in Twitter Activities
Time frame: 12 months
Macro level: The number of participants who do not engage in Twitter activities (i.e., retweet, reply, like, post) within the Twitter network for dementia caregivers
Emotional Valence Score
Time frame: 12 months
Emotional valence (macro level) detected from text data (e.g., "This is so helpful": emotion score +4; "I am sad": emotion score -6). Emotional valence score ranges from -10 to +10; -10 indicates negative valence and +10 indicates positive valence.
2 secondary outcomes
Number of Auto-detected Small Groups
Time frame: 12 months
Percentage of Balanced Triads
Time frame: 12 months
Results and safety
Loading the posted results from ClinicalTrials.gov…
Research links
- Official record on ClinicalTrials.govLast updated by the sponsor 15 Jan 2025.
- Posted resultsParticipant flow, baseline, all outcome measures and adverse events.
- Individual participant dataSharing planned: No
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Referral and contact
AzTrials does not enrol participants or take referrals. Contact the study team or a site listed below; they decide who can take part. This study is not recruiting at the moment.
Sunmoo Yoon, PhD principal investigator
Associate Research Scientist in the Department of Medicine
1 site in 1 country: see every site and its status.
Questions about this trial
What is this clinical trial studying?
A study testing Twitter for Hispanic caregivers and Twitter for African American caregivers in people with Loneliness and Emotional Stress, run by Columbia University at 1 site in United States.
The full registered description is in the About this study section and the official record.
Who may be eligible to take part?
The sponsor lists 5 inclusion and 1 exclusion criteria. Eligibility is decided by the study team after screening, so read the full criteria and contact a listed site.
Is this clinical trial currently recruiting?
The record says: finished, as of the sponsor's last update on 15 Jan 2025. Status can change between updates, so confirm with the study contact before making plans.
Where is the study taking place?
The record lists 1 site in United States. Whether a site is taking part right now should be confirmed with that site. See every site.
What are the possible benefits and risks?
They depend on the study and the treatment, and no study can promise a benefit. The study team explains the known risks during informed consent, before anyone joins; the record itself does not list them.
Are results available for this study?
Yes. Results are posted in the registry (first posted 15 Jan 2025). A summary is in the For doctors view, and the full results are on ClinicalTrials.gov.
How can a doctor refer a patient or contact the research team?
The record lists no contact. The official record names the sponsor, who can be asked directly. AzTrials does not enrol participants or take referrals.
What does the primary outcome measure?
Number of Participants Who do Not Engage in Twitter Activities (time frame: 12 months). The study lists 2 primary outcomes in all. It is what the study was designed to measure, not a finding.
Where can I read the original study information?
Does a listing mean the treatment is approved or proven to work?
No. A listing means the study is registered. It does not show that the treatment is safe, works, or is approved by a regulator.
How often is this information updated?
AzTrials copies changed records from ClinicalTrials.gov every night and reloads the whole registry every week. The sponsor last updated this record on 15 Jan 2025.