Internet Addiction
Conditions
Keywords
Adolescents, Nursing-students-led, Cognitive Behavioural therapy, Motivational Interviewing
Brief summary
The use of the internet is very popular in adolescence. Notwithstanding the benefits from the internet, many users are addicted to the internet and develop problematic behaviours which are regarded as Internet addiction (IA). Trained nursing students, who are the future nurses and well-equipped with basic health knowledge, as the interventionists to deliver a bCBTMI intervention to the eligible subjects. The result of this study is expected to provide evidence of the feasibility and effectiveness of training nursing students to conduct bCBTMI in Hong Kong Chinese adolescents with IA for a definitive RCT.
Detailed description
A two-arm, parallel-group, feasibility cluster randomized controlled trial will be conducted. 60 adolescents with IA will be recruited from secondary schools in Hong Kong. Participants in the intervention group will receive 4 weekly 30-45 minute sessions using the brief CBT and the brief MI models by nursing students. Control group participants will receive routine care for IA.
Interventions
BEHAVIORALbCBTMI
This experimental group involves 4 weekly 30-45 minute sessions using the brief CBT and the brief MI models by trained nursing students.
BEHAVIORALControl
The control group will receive health talks about internet addiction consequences and impacts on young people by nursing students who are not involved in the intervention group to mimic the time and attention spent on the intervention group. These health talks are considered routine care for IA health promotion.
Sponsors
The Hong Kong Polytechnic University
Study design
Allocation
RANDOMIZED
Intervention model
PARALLEL
Primary purpose
TREATMENT
Masking
SINGLE (Subject)
Eligibility
Sex/Gender
ALL
Age
13 Years to 17 Years
Healthy volunteers
No
Inclusion criteria
* Aged 13 to 17 * Studying Forms 2 to 4 * Classified as IA by the Chinese version of Young's 10-item Internet Addiction Test (IAT) * Can communicate in Cantonese and read Chinese.
Exclusion criteria
* With physical or cognitive impairment and learning problems as identified from the medical records
Design outcomes
Primary
| Measure | Time frame | Description |
|---|---|---|
| Adverse events | at the 6-month follow-up | Are defined as unfavorable and unintended events that are not present at baseline, or appear to have worsened during the study. The relation to the intervention will be assessed in accordance with the protocol for adverse events management (It can be provided upon request). The number and event severity will be recorded. Numbers and reasons for exclusions will be noted. |
| Screening rate | at day 1 | Calculated as the number of students screened at participated secondary schools divided by number of students at participated schools during the recruitment period. |
| Eligibility rate | at day 1 | Calculated by dividing the number of secondary school students who are eligible by the number who are screened. |
| Consent rate | at the 6-month follow-up | Calculated by dividing the number of secondary school students who consent to join the study by the number who are eligible. |
| Randomization rate | at day 1 | Calculated by dividing the number of secondary school students who are randomized into intervention and control groups by those who provide consent. |
| Attendance rate | Immediately after the bCBTMI intervention | Calculated by dividing the number of secondary school students who complete the intervention by those who are randomized. |
| Retention rate | at the 6-month follow-up | Calculated by dividing the number of secondary school students who remain in the study by those who are randomized. Retention rates for the intervention and control groups will be calculated at each follow-up. |
| Adherence to intervention protocol | at the 1-month follow-up | Calculated by dividing the number of secondary school students who follow the intervention protocol by those who are randomized. |
| Missing data | at the 6-month follow-up | Calculated as the percentage of missing values in the dataset. Unknown or blank values will be considered missing values. |
| Complete rate | at the 6-month follow-up | Calculated by dividing the number of secondary school students who returned questionnaires by the number of questionnaires distributed. This will be calculated by groups at baseline and each follow-up. |
Secondary
| Measure | Time frame | Description |
|---|---|---|
| Self-reported abstinence at the 1-month follow-up | at the 1-month follow-up | Measured by the number of IA symptoms via a self-reported questionnaire. |
| Self-reported abstinence at the 3-month follow-up | at the 3-month follow-up | Measured by the number of IA symptoms via a self-reported questionnaire. |
| Self-reported abstinence at the 6-month follow-up | at the 6-month follow-up | Measured by the number of IA symptoms via a self-reported questionnaire. |
| The Chinese version of Center for Epidemiologic Studies Depression Scale for Children (CES-DC) | at the 1-week follow-up | CES-DC will be used to record the number of depression symptoms in secondary schools students with IA at each follow-up. It includes 20 items asking on a 4-point Likert scale in relation to the incidence of the stated symptoms during the previous week, and are scored from 0 to 3 (0 = not at all, 3 = a lot). Total scores range from 0 to 60, with higher scores indicating greater number of depressive symptoms. This questionnaire has been empirically tested and validated in Hong Kong children and are currently using in Youth Quitline. |
| Anxiety level | at the 1-week follow-up | The anxiety level of secondary school students with IA will be measured by the short form of the Chinese Version of the State Anxiety Scale for Children (CSAS-C) at each follow-up. It has 10 itmes with scores from 1 to 3. Total scores range from 10 to 30, with higher scores indicating a higher level of anxiety. This questionnaire has been empirically tested and validated in Hong Kong children. |
| Sleep quality of secondary schools students with IA will be assessed using the Pittsburgh Sleep Quality Index (PSQI) | at the 1-week follow-up | It contains 19 items measuring 7 domains: subjective sleep quality, latency, duration, habitual efficiency, disturbances, use of medication, and daytime dysfunction on a 3-point scale (0: no difficulty to 3: severe difficulty) except for the items reporting bedtime and time awake. The sum of the seven component scores produces a global score with higher scores represent poorer subjective sleep quality. It has been validated in Hong Kong children and adolescents previously. |
| Self-reported abstinence at the 1-week follow-up | at the 1-week follow-up | Measured by the number of IA symptoms via a self-reported questionnaire. |
Countries
Hong Kong
Contacts
Primary ContactKa Wai Katherine Lam
Backup ContactKa Yan Ho
Outcome results
None listed