General-health-promotion-approach to Promoting Healthier Lives

Summary

Aim To examine the effectiveness of a general-health-promotion-approach to help ED attendees change their health-risk behaviours and lead healthier lives.

Hypotheses to be tested The investigators hypothesise that compared with those in the control group, the participants in the intervention group will experience significantly greater success in changing their health-risk behaviours and will have a better health-related quality of life at 6 months follow-up.

Conditions

• Health-risk Behaviours
• Non Communicable Diseases

Interventions

OTHER

foot-in-the-door technique and self-determination theory

the research assistant will ask about the priority the participants place on engagement in desirable health-related lifestyle practices identified in the completed behavioural risk factor survey. The participants will also be asked to choose the goal that they consider easiest to achieve, such as quitting or reducing smoking, consuming more vegetables or less fatty foods or sugary drinks, performing more exercise or reducing alcohol consumption. The participants will be encouraged to quit health-risk behaviours (or adopt a healthy lifestyle) sequentially, but they will also be able to choose to quit them simultaneously if they are confident in doing so. Each participant will then receive a brief (approximately 5 minutes), individual intervention with health advice about the selected health-related lifestyle practice. The whole intervention will last approximately 10 minutes, but slightly longer if necessary.

OTHER

Follow-up booster intervention

For the first 6 months of the study period, the research assistant will deliver WhatsApp/WeChat messages about once per week. If a participant does not own a smartphone or is unable to receive WhatsApp/WeChat messages (uncommon in Hong Kong), the research assistant will make a telephone call, instead of sending a message, as a reminder for the participants to adhere to their desirable health-related lifestyle practice. Instant messaging via mobile applications has found to be effective in enhancing treatment compliance.

OTHER

Control group

The control group participants will receive a brief telephone intervention based on the AWARD model and delivered by the trained research assistant, similar to that delivered to the intervention group. However, the research assistant will simply advise the participants to change their health-risk behaviours and/or adopt a healthy lifestyle practice.

Sponsors & Collaborators

• Chinese University of Hong Kong

  lead OTHER

Principal Investigators

• Ho Cheung William Li, PhD · Chinese University of Hong Kong

Study Design

Allocation

RANDOMIZED

Purpose

PREVENTION

Masking

SINGLE

Model

PARALLEL

Eligibility

Min Age

18 Years

Max Age

65 Years

Sex

ALL

Healthy Volunteers

No

Timeline & Regulatory

Start

2024-01-05

Primary Completion

2025-05-31

Completion

2025-05-31

Countries

• Hong Kong

Study Locations