Writing About Experiences and Health in Older Adults

NCT02472379 | Completed

• 4 other identifiers: GENF31AG048668UL1TR000124R03AG049254
• Study Type: interventional
• Target: 78
• Locations: 1 country
• Sites: 1

Brief Summary

UCLA researchers looking for healthy females (age 60+) to participate in a study investigating how writing about your experiences may be related to your health. Once a week for 6 weeks, participants will write about their experiences and fill out online questionnaires. Participants will also come to the UCLA campus for blood draws and to fill out questionnaires 3 times: once prior to the 6-week writing period, once immediately after the 6-week period, and once 2-months after the writing period.

Conditions

Social Psychology

Keywords

Immune System; Behavioral Sciences; Women's Health; Health Psychology; Writing

Outcome Measures

Primary Outcomes (2)

• Inflammatory activity

  Changes in proinflammatory cytokine and proinflammatory gene expression from blood draws

  baseline, post 6-week writing period, 2-months post-writing period

• Health and well-being (self-report)

  Changes in self-report measures of health (e.g., pain, sleep) and well-being (e.g., social support, depression)

  baseline, post 6-week writing period, 2-months post-writing period

Study Arms (2)

Writing: Group 1

EXPERIMENTAL

Subjects will be asked to write about experiences with familiar individuals in their lives.

Behavioral: Writing: Group 1

Writing: Group 2

PLACEBO COMPARATOR

Subjects will be asked to write about experiences with familiar places in their lives.

Other: Writing: Group 2

Interventions

Writing: Group 1 BEHAVIORAL

Writing about experiences with familiar individuals in their lives, once a week for 6 weeks.

Writing: Group 1

Writing: Group 2 OTHER

Writing about experiences with familiar places, once a week for 6 weeks.

Writing: Group 2

Eligibility Criteria

• Age: 60 Years - 100 Years
• Sex: female
• Healthy Volunteers: Yes
• Age Groups: Adult (18-64), Older Adult (65+)

You may qualify if:

• Healthy adults 60 years and older

You may not qualify if:

• Following a structured telephone interview, participants with the following conditions will not be able to participate:
• current smokers
• active, uncontrolled medical disorders
• chronic infection (e.g., Hepatitis C, HIV)
• use of certain medications (e.g., hypnotic and psychotropic medication, steroid use, opioid use)
• psychiatric disorders (e.g., current major depression, bipolar disorder)
• body mass index (BMI) greater than 35

Sponsors & Collaborators

• University of California, Los Angeles: lead
• National Institute on Aging (NIA): collaborator
• National Center for Advancing Translational Sciences (NCATS): collaborator

Study Sites (1)

UCLA Clinical & Translational Research Center (CTRC)

Los Angeles, California, United States

Location

Study Officials

• Naomi I. Eisenberger, Ph.D.

  University of California, Los Angeles

  PRINCIPAL INVESTIGATOR

• Mona Moieni, M.A.

  University of California, Los Angeles

  PRINCIPAL INVESTIGATOR

Study Design

• Study Type: interventional
• Phase: not applicable
• Allocation: RANDOMIZED
• Masking: DOUBLE
• Who Masked: PARTICIPANT, INVESTIGATOR
• Purpose: BASIC SCIENCE
• Intervention Model: PARALLEL
• Sponsor Type: OTHER
• Responsible Party: PRINCIPAL INVESTIGATOR
• PI Title: Associate Professor

Study Record Dates

• First Submitted: June 10, 2015
• First Posted: June 15, 2015
• Study Start: October 1, 2015
• Primary Completion: January 1, 2017
• Study Completion: March 1, 2017
• Last Updated: March 18, 2026

Record last verified: 2026-03

Locations

US (1)