Women Lift Safely! An Intervention Study to Reduce the Risks of Heavy Lifting

Summary

The Women Lift Safely! Intervention study aims to increase safe carrying behavior to reduce health risks of heavy lifting in a rural area of Nepal (i.e. reducing weight and using safe lifting techniques).

The study's specific aims are to:

1\) Test whether a psychological intervention that promotes self-efficacy can promote women's use of safe carrying behavior effectively compared to an information only control condition.

(2) Test whether including a social partner in the intervention is more effective than an individual psychological intervention.

Conditions

• Behavior, Health
• Behavior, Maternal
• Work Related Stress

Interventions

BEHAVIORAL

Information about benefits of the behavior

The women will be informed that the safe carrying behaviors can reduce pelvic strain. She is informed about the benefits reducing pelvic strain may imply \[5.1; 5.3.,5.6 Information about health; environmental; social; and emotional consequences, (Michie et al., 2013)\]

BEHAVIORAL

Instruction on how to perform a behavior

For the target behavior "reduce carried weight" information on recommended weight limits will be given. The women will be encouraged, that even if these limits may not be feasible for them, any reduction of weight can still reduce the strain on the pelvic floor. For the target behavior "safe lifting techniques", instructions to learn the correct behavior (how to perform safe lifting techniques?) based on leaflets developed and validated by Caagbay et al., (2017, 2020) \[4.1 Instruction on how to perform a behavior (Michie et al., 2013)\]

BEHAVIORAL

Self-efficacy

Self-efficacy will be promoted by the four sources of self-efficacy (Bandura, 1977): 1) Mastery Experiences (experience that one is able to successfully apply the behavior), vicarious experience (observing successful others performing the safe carrying behavior), verbal persuasion (receiving positive feedback when performing the behavior and encouraging messages to do so) and emotional state (e.g. being in a positive emotional state when performing the behavior). \[6.1 Demonstration of the behavior; 8.1 Behavioral practice/rehearsal; 15.1 Verbal persuasion about capability; 15.2 Mental rehearsal of successful performance; 15.3 Focus on past success;15.4 Self-talk; 5.4 Monitoring of emotional consequences (Michie et al., 2013)\]

BEHAVIORAL

Social Support

A self-selected social partner from the same or neighboring household (e.g. husband, mother-in-law) will be involved in the learning process (observational learning, feedback). The partner will participate in the intervention activities and will be instructed to provide emotional social support and practical informational support. \[3.2 practical support, 3.3 emotional support; 6.3 Information about others' approval (Michie et al., 2013).\]

Sponsors & Collaborators

• Suzanne und Hans Biäsch Foundation

  collaborator UNKNOWN

• University of Bern

  lead OTHER

Principal Investigators

• Jennifer Inauen, PhD · University of Bern, Health Psychology & Behavioral Medicine

• Akina Shrestha, PhD · Dhulikhel Hospital, Kathmandu University School of Medical Sciences

Study Design

Allocation

NON_RANDOMIZED

Purpose

PREVENTION

Masking

SINGLE

Model

PARALLEL

Eligibility

Min Age

18 Years

Max Age

49 Years

Sex

FEMALE

Healthy Volunteers

Yes

Timeline & Regulatory

Start

2022-01-14

Primary Completion

2022-04-02

Completion

2022-10-22

Countries

• Nepal

Study Locations