Skip to main page content
U.S. flag

An official website of the United States government

Dot gov

The .gov means it’s official.
Federal government websites often end in .gov or .mil. Before sharing sensitive information, make sure you’re on a federal government site.

Https

The site is secure.
The https:// ensures that you are connecting to the official website and that any information you provide is encrypted and transmitted securely.

Access keys NCBI Homepage MyNCBI Homepage Main Content Main Navigation
. 2021 Mar 29:12:644782.
doi: 10.3389/fpsyg.2021.644782. eCollection 2021.

A Self-Applied Multi-Component Psychological Online Intervention Based on UX, for the Prevention of Complicated Grief Disorder in the Mexican Population During the COVID-19 Outbreak: Protocol of a Randomized Clinical Trial

Alejandro Dominguez-Rodriguez  1 , Sofia Cristina Martínez-Luna  2 , María Jesús Hernández Jiménez  1 , Anabel De La Rosa-Gómez  3 , Paulina Arenas-Landgrave  2 , Esteban Eugenio Esquivel Santoveña  4 , Carlos Arzola-Sánchez  4 , Joabián Alvarez Silva  5 , Arantza Mariel Solis Nicolas  6 , Ana Marisa Colmenero Guadián  5 , Flor Rocio Ramírez-Martínez  4 , Rosa Olimpia Castellanos Vargas  4
Affiliations

A Self-Applied Multi-Component Psychological Online Intervention Based on UX, for the Prevention of Complicated Grief Disorder in the Mexican Population During the COVID-19 Outbreak: Protocol of a Randomized Clinical Trial

Alejandro Dominguez-Rodriguez et al. Front Psychol. .

Abstract

Background: COVID-19 has taken many lives worldwide and due to this, millions of persons are in grief. When the grief process lasts longer than 6 months, the person is in risk of developing Complicated Grief Disorder (CGD). The CGD is related to serious health consequences. To reduce the probability of developing CGD a preventive intervention could be applied. In developing countries like Mexico, the psychological services are scarce, self-applied interventions could provide support to solve this problem and reduce the health impact even after the pandemic has already finished. Aims: To design and implement a self-applied intervention composed of 12 modules focused on the decrease of the risk of developing CGD, and increasing the life quality, and as a secondary objective to reduce the symptomatology of anxiety, depression, and increase of sleep quality. The Intervention Duelo COVID (Grief COVID) follows the principles of User Experience (UX) and is designed according to the needs and desires of a sample of the objective participants, to increase the adherence to the self-applied intervention, considered one of the main weaknesses of online interventions. Methods: A Randomized Controlled Trial will be conducted from the 22nd of December of 2020 to the first of June 2021. The participants will be assigned to an intervention with elements of Cognitive Behavioral Therapy, Acceptance and Commitment Therapy, Mindfulness and Positive Psychology. The control group will be a wait-list condition, that will receive the intervention 1.5-2 months after the pre-measurement were taken. The Power Size Calculation conducted through G*Power indicated the need for a total of 42 participants, which will be divided by 21 participants in each group. The platform will be delivered through responsive design assuring with this that the intervention will adapt to the screen size of cellphones, tablets, and computers. Ethics and Dissemination: The study counts with the approval of the Research Ethics Committee of the Autonomous University of Ciudad Juárez, México, and it is registered in Clinical Trials (NCT04638842). The article is sent and registered in clinical trials before the recruitment started. The results will be reported in future conferences, scientific publications, and media.

Keywords: COVID-19; grief; online intervention; randomized controlled (clinical) trial; user experience.

PubMed Disclaimer

Conflict of interest statement

The authors declare that the research was conducted in the absence of any commercial or financial relationships that could be construed as a potential conflict of interest.

Figures

Figure 1
Figure 1
Flow chart of the study design of the “Grief COVID” (Duelo COVID) intervention.
Figure 2
Figure 2
Randomization process of the “Grief COVID” (Duelo COVID) intervention.
Figure 3
Figure 3
High Fidelity Prototype in Figma of the main page of the “Grief COVID” (Duelo COVID) intervention.
Figure 4
Figure 4
High Fidelity Prototype in Figma of the login/create an account page of the “Grief COVID” (Duelo COVID) intervention.
Figure 5
Figure 5
High Fidelity Prototype in Figma of the main menu page of the “Grief COVID” (Duelo COVID) intervention.
Figure 6
Figure 6
High Fidelity Prototype in Figma of the available and pending sessions page of the “Grief COVID” (Duelo COVID) intervention.
See this image and copyright information in PMC

References

    1. Acosta-Quiroz C., Vales-García J., Echeverría-Castro S., Serrao-Encinas D., García-Flores R. (2013). Reliability and validity of the Quality of Life Questionnaire (WHOQOL-OLD) in Mexican older adults. Psicol. Salud. 23, 241–250. 10.25009/pys.v23i2.505 - DOI
    1. Adlin T., Pruitt J., Goodwin K., Hynes C., McGrane K., Rosenstein A., et al. (2006). Putting personas to work, in CHI '06: Proceedings of the SIGCHI Conference on Human Factors in Computing Systems, eds R. Grinter, T. Rodden, P. Aoki, E. Cutrell, R. Jeffries, and G. Oldson (Montreal, QC: Association for Computing Machinery: ), 13–16. 10.1145/1124772 - DOI
    1. Alderete-Aguilar C., Cruz-Maycott R., Iglesias M. C., Rodríguez-Estrada E., Reyes-Terán G. (2017). Assessment of depression, anxiety, hopelessness and suicidal risk in HIV+ inpatients. Salud Mental 40, 23–27. 10.17711/SM.0185-3325.2017.004 - DOI
    1. Aoun S. M., Cafarella P. A., Rumbold B., Thomas G., Hogden A., Jiang L., et al. (2020). Who cares for the bereaved? A national survey of family caregivers of people with motor neurone disease. Amyotroph. Lateral Scler. Frontotemporal Degener. 1–11. 10.1080/21678421.2020.1813780 - DOI - PubMed
    1. Archer J. (2003). The Nature of Grief. The Evolution and Psychology of Reactions to Loss. London: Routledge.

LinkOut - more resources