A Randomized Placebo-Controlled Study on the Effectiveness of the "Three Good Things for Others" Intervention.
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ABSTRACT:
SUBMITTER: Laguna M
PROVIDER: S-EPMC8170032 | biostudies-literature |
REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature
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Project description:BackgroundIntensive care unit (ICU) personnel have an elevated prevalence of job-related burn-out and post-traumatic stress disorder, which can ultimately impact patient care. To strengthen healthcare workers' skills to deal with stressful events, it is important to focus not only on minimising suffering but also on increasing happiness, as this entails many more benefits than simply feeling good. Thus, the purpose of this study was to explore the content of the 'good things' reported by healthcare workers participating in the 'Three Good Things' intervention.MethodsIn a tertiary care medical centre, a sample of 89 neonatal ICU (NICU) healthcare professionals registered for the online intervention. Of these, 32 individuals eventually participated fully in the 14-day online Three Good Things intervention survey. Daily emails reminded participants to reflect on and respond to the questions: "What are the three things that went well today?" and "What was your role in bringing them about?" To analyse their responses, we applied a thematic analysis, which was guided by our theoretical understanding of resilience.ResultsInvolving more than 1300 statements, the Three Good Things responses of the 32 study participants, including registered nurses, physicians and neonatal nurse practitioners, led to the identification of three main themes: (1) having a good day at work; (2) having supportive relationships and (3) making meaningful use of self-determined time.ConclusionsThe findings show the personal and professional relevance of supportive relationships strengthened by clear communication and common activities that foster positive emotions. The Three Good Things exercise acknowledges the importance of self-care in healthcare workers and appears to promote well-being, which might ultimately strengthen resilience.
| S-EPMC5623381 | biostudies-literature
Project description:ObjectivesHigh rates of healthcare worker (HCW) burn-out have led many to label it an 'epidemic' urgently requiring interventions. This prospective pilot study examined the efficacy, feasibility and evaluation of the 'Three Good Things' (3GT) intervention for HCWs, and added burn-out and work-life balance to the set of well-being metrics.Methods228 HCWs participated in a prospective, repeated measures study of a web-based 15-day long 3GT intervention. Assessments were collected at baseline and 1, 6 and 12-month post-intervention. The primary measure of efficacy was a derivative of the emotional exhaustion subscale of the Maslach Burnout Inventory. The secondary measures were validated instruments assessing depression symptoms, subjective happiness, and work-life balance. Paired samples t-tests and Cohen's d effect sizes for correlated samples were used to examine the efficacy of the intervention.Results3GT participants exhibited significant improvements from baseline in emotional exhaustion, depression symptoms and happiness at 1 month, 6 months and 12 months, and in work-life balance at 1 month and 6 months (effect sizes 0.16-0.52). Exploratory subgroup analyses of participants meeting 'concerning' criteria at baseline revealed even larger effects at all assessment points (0.55-1.57). Attrition rates were similar to prior 3GT interventions.Conclusion3GT appears a promising low-cost and brief intervention for improving HCW well-being.Ethics and disseminationThis study is approved by the Institutional Review Board of Duke University Health System (Pro00063703). All participants are required to give their informed consent prior to any study procedure.
| S-EPMC6475256 | biostudies-literature
Project description:Diabetes and Arteriosclerosis progression are frequently observed in borderline Type 2 diabetes cases. Onset of complications (arteriosclerosis and renal damage) due to Type 2 diabetes is well documented; it is extremely important to prevent or delay their progression. Type 2 diabetes onset and progression has been controlled through dietary habits and exercise, although these remain insufficient. Chlorella ingestion improves blood glucose and cholesterol concentrations in mice and humans, although no reports have evaluated Chlorella effects in borderline diabetics. Therefore, we conducted a randomized, placebo-controlled trial for borderline diabetics using laboratory results and comprehensive gene analysis as outcomes. Chlorella ingestion suppressed resistin gene expression, suggesting that Chlorella may be useful for preventing diabetes onset and ameliorating arteriosclerosis. Subjects were randomly divided into two groups: Chlorella group (n = 28) ingesting Chlorella powder (8.0 g/day) and placebo group (n = 29) ingesting lactose formulation (8.0 g/day) for 12 weeks. Blood and urine were collected every 4 weeks for laboratory tests. Gene expression analysis used RNA extracted from peripheral blood samples before and after 12 weeks of Chlorella or lactose ingestion.
2015-10-17 | E-GEOD-41767 | biostudies-arrayexpress
Project description:Diabetes and Arteriosclerosis progression are frequently observed in borderline Type 2 diabetes cases. Onset of complications (arteriosclerosis and renal damage) due to Type 2 diabetes is well documented; it is extremely important to prevent or delay their progression. Type 2 diabetes onset and progression has been controlled through dietary habits and exercise, although these remain insufficient. Chlorella ingestion improves blood glucose and cholesterol concentrations in mice and humans, although no reports have evaluated Chlorella effects in borderline diabetics. Therefore, we conducted a randomized, placebo-controlled trial for borderline diabetics using laboratory results and comprehensive gene analysis as outcomes. Chlorella ingestion suppressed resistin gene expression, suggesting that Chlorella may be useful for preventing diabetes onset and ameliorating arteriosclerosis.
2015-10-17 | GSE41767 | GEO
Project description:BACKGROUND: Intensive lifestyle intervention significantly reduces the progression to diabetes in high-risk individuals. OBJECTIVE: It is not known whether a program of moderate intervention might effectively reduce metabolic abnormalities in the general population. DESIGN: Two-arm randomized controlled 1-year trial. PATIENTS: Three hundred and thirty-five patients participated from a dysmetabolic population-based cohort of 375 adults aged 45-64 years in northwestern Italy. MEASUREMENTS: We compared the effectiveness of a general recommendation-based program of lifestyle intervention carried out by trained professionals versus standard unstructured information given by family physicians at reducing the prevalence of multiple metabolic and inflammatory abnormalities. RESULTS: At baseline, clinical/anthropometric/laboratory and lifestyle characteristics of the intervention (n = 169) and control (n = 166) groups were not significantly different. The former significantly reduced total/saturated fat intake and increased polyunsaturated fat/fiber intake and exercise level compared to the controls. Weight, waist circumference, high-sensitivity C-reactive protein, and most of the metabolic syndrome components decreased in the intervention group and increased in the controls after 12 months. Lifestyle intervention significantly reduced metabolic syndrome (odds ratio [OR] = 0.28; 95% CI 0.18-0.44), with a 31% (21-41) absolute risk reduction, corresponding to 3.2 (2-5) patients needing to be treated to prevent 1 case after 12 months. The intervention significantly reduced the prevalence of central obesity (OR = 0.33; 0.20-0.56), and hypertriglyceridemia (OR = 0.48; 0.31-0.75) and the incidence of diabetes (OR = 0.23; 0.06-0.85). CONCLUSION: A lifestyle intervention based on general recommendations was effective in reducing multiple metabolic/inflammatory abnormalities. The usual care by family physicians was ineffective at modifying progressive metabolic deterioration in high-risk individuals.
| S-EPMC2219825 | biostudies-other
Project description:Activation of Sirtuin (silent mating type information regulation 2 homolog) 1, or SIRT1, is an unexplored therapeutic approach for treatment of inflammatory diseases. The goal of this study was to evaluate the clinical activity and tolerability of multiple doses of SRT2104, a selective activator of SIRT1, in patients with moderate to severe psoriasis after day 84 of treatment. Forty patients were randomized 4:1 to three escalating doses of SRT2104 (250, 500, 1000 mg/d SRT2104 or placebo). Across all SRT2104 groups, 34.6% of patients (9 out of 26; 90% CI 18.0%-54.2%, p<0.0001) achieved good to excellent histological improvement based on skin biopsies taken at baseline and day 84. To evaluate the changes in expression profile with treatment and to identify pathways involved in histological improvement, a subset of 22 Pre and Post treatment biopsies from 11 patients (4 Placebo, 7 Active Treatment) were hybridized to hgu133plus2 chips. Improvement in histology was associated with modulation of IL-17 and TNF-_ signaling pathways and keratinocyte differentiation target genes. Various studies suggest a crucial role of TNF_ and IL-17 in psoriasis pathogenesis and IL-17/TNF_ synergism induces a strong induction of differentially expressed genes in psoriasis, thus advocating a crucial role of IL-17/TNF_ combination in the molecular basis of disease (Chiricozzi et al., 2010). In the current study, broad scale gene expression profiling revealed that SRT2104 significantly reduced known IL-17 and TNF_ responsive genes including SERPINB4, S100A12, SERPINB3, kynu etc. even though the sample size for this analysis was small. One of the most highly modulated genes by SRT2104 included Kynu, a gene that regulates tryptophan metabolism, known to confer antibacterial effector functions (Daubener and MacKenzie, 1999). Interestingly kynu is part of the etanercept residual genomic profile that is not modulated by etanercept therapy even though clinical efficacy is achieved. Possibly, SRT2104 may be modulating the lipid barrier of the epidermis of psoriatic skin via modulation of keratinocyte diferentiation genes, which would be consistent with the observed improvement in skin histology. These results indicate a combinatorial effect of SRT2104 on TNF_, and IL-17 inflammatory signaling pathways and keratinocyte differentiation that could be a contributing factor towards improvement in clinical scores by the SIRT1 activator, SRT2104. Paired Pre (Day 1) and Post (Day 84) Treatment samples were obtained from 4 Placebo Patients and 7 patients treated with SRT2104 at 3 different doses (250, 500, 1000 mg).
2014-11-12 | E-GEOD-50614 | biostudies-arrayexpress
Project description:Activation of Sirtuin (silent mating type information regulation 2 homolog) 1, or SIRT1, is an unexplored therapeutic approach for treatment of inflammatory diseases. The goal of this study was to evaluate the clinical activity and tolerability of multiple doses of SRT2104, a selective activator of SIRT1, in patients with moderate to severe psoriasis after day 84 of treatment. Forty patients were randomized 4:1 to three escalating doses of SRT2104 (250, 500, 1000 mg/d SRT2104 or placebo). Across all SRT2104 groups, 34.6% of patients (9 out of 26; 90% CI 18.0%-54.2%, p<0.0001) achieved good to excellent histological improvement based on skin biopsies taken at baseline and day 84. To evaluate the changes in expression profile with treatment and to identify pathways involved in histological improvement, a subset of 22 Pre and Post treatment biopsies from 11 patients (4 Placebo, 7 Active Treatment) were hybridized to hgu133plus2 chips. Improvement in histology was associated with modulation of IL-17 and TNF-_ signaling pathways and keratinocyte differentiation target genes. Various studies suggest a crucial role of TNF_ and IL-17 in psoriasis pathogenesis and IL-17/TNF_ synergism induces a strong induction of differentially expressed genes in psoriasis, thus advocating a crucial role of IL-17/TNF_ combination in the molecular basis of disease (Chiricozzi et al., 2010). In the current study, broad scale gene expression profiling revealed that SRT2104 significantly reduced known IL-17 and TNF_ responsive genes including SERPINB4, S100A12, SERPINB3, kynu etc. even though the sample size for this analysis was small. One of the most highly modulated genes by SRT2104 included Kynu, a gene that regulates tryptophan metabolism, known to confer antibacterial effector functions (Daubener and MacKenzie, 1999). Interestingly kynu is part of the etanercept residual genomic profile that is not modulated by etanercept therapy even though clinical efficacy is achieved. Possibly, SRT2104 may be modulating the lipid barrier of the epidermis of psoriatic skin via modulation of keratinocyte diferentiation genes, which would be consistent with the observed improvement in skin histology. These results indicate a combinatorial effect of SRT2104 on TNF_, and IL-17 inflammatory signaling pathways and keratinocyte differentiation that could be a contributing factor towards improvement in clinical scores by the SIRT1 activator, SRT2104.
2014-11-12 | GSE50614 | GEO
Project description:Actions such as sharing food and cooperating to reach a common goal have played a fundamental role in the evolution of human societies. Despite the importance of such good actions, little is known about if and how they can spread from person to person to person. For instance, does being recipient of an altruistic act increase your probability of being cooperative with a third party? We have conducted an experiment on Amazon Mechanical Turk to test this mechanism using economic games. We have measured willingness to be cooperative through a standard Prisoner's dilemma and willingness to act altruistically using a binary Dictator game. In the baseline treatments, the endowments needed to play were given by the experimenters, as usual; in the control treatments, they came from a good action made by someone else. Across four different comparisons and a total of 572 subjects, we have never found a significant increase of cooperation or altruism when the endowment came from a good action. We conclude that good actions do not necessarily inspire good actions in others. While this is consistent with the theoretical prediction, it challenges the majority of other experimental studies.
| S-EPMC4264010 | biostudies-literature
Project description:The aim of the present study was to establish the relationship(s) between supplement dose using a novel enriched marine oil preparation, peripheral blood SPM concentrations and cellular responses. We also aimed to assess the kinetics for these responses in order to provide 1) insights into the protective mechanisms activated by omega-3 supplements in humans and 2) novel potential biomarkers for determining the effectiveness of omega-3 supplements at regulating host immune responses.
2019-12-13 | GSE132648 | GEO
Project description:BACKGROUND:In recent years, high phosphate intakes were discussed critically. In the small intestine, a part of the ingested phosphate and calcium precipitates to amorphous calcium phosphate (ACP), which in turn can precipitate other intestinal substances, thus leading to a beneficial modulation of the intestinal environment. Therefore, we analysed faecal samples obtained from a human intervention study regarding gut-related parameters. METHODS:Sixty-two healthy subjects (men, n =?30; women, n =?32) completed the double-blind, placebo-controlled and parallel designed study (mean age: 29?±?7 years; mean BMI: 24?±?3 kg/m2). Supplements were monosodium phosphate and calcium carbonate. During the first 2 weeks, all groups consumed a placebo sherbet powder, and afterwards a sherbet powder for 8 weeks according to the intervention group: P1000/Ca0 (1000 mg/d phosphorus), P1000/Ca500 (1000 mg/d phosphorus and 500 mg/d calcium) and P1000/Ca1000 (1000 mg/d phosphorus and 1000 mg/d calcium). After the placebo period and after 8 weeks of intervention faecal collections took place. We determined in faeces: short-chain fatty acids (SCFA) and fat as well as the composition of the microbiome (subgroup) and cyto- and genotoxicity of faecal water (FW). By questionnaire evaluation we examined tolerability of the used phosphorus supplement. RESULTS:Faecal fat concentrations did not change significantly due to the interventions. Concentrations of faecal total SCFA and acetate were significantly higher after 8 weeks of P1000/Ca500 supplementation compared to the P1000/Ca0 supplementation. In men, faecal total SCFA and acetate concentrations were significantly higher after 8 weeks in the P1000/Ca1000 group compared to the P1000/Ca0 one. None of the interventions markedly affected cyto- and genotoxic activity of FW. Men of the P1000/Ca1000 intervention had a significantly different gut microbial community compared to the men of the P1000/Ca0 and P1000/Ca500 ones. The genus Clostridium XVIII was significantly more abundant in men of the P1000/Ca1000 intervention group compared to the other groups. Supplementations did not cause increased intestinal distress. CONCLUSIONS:The used high phosphorus diet did not influence cyto- and genotoxicity of FW and the concentrations of faecal fat independent of calcium intake. Our study provides first hints for a potential phosphorus-induced modulation of the gut community and the faecal total SCFA content. TRIAL REGISTRATION:The trial is registered at ClinicalTrials.gov as NCT02095392 .
| S-EPMC5815223 | biostudies-literature