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Family-authored Digital ICU Diary Intervention to Support Bereaved Family Members in Intensive Care Unit: A Pilot Mixed Methods Study

NCT07788768 · Status: NOT_YET_RECRUITING · Phase: NA · Type: INTERVENTIONAL · Enrollment: 40

Last updated 2026-08-26

No results posted yet for this study

Summary

Objectives: To assess the feasibility, acceptability and appropriateness of a family-authored digital ICU diary intervention for bereaved family members in Hong Kong ICUs, and to explore family members' experiences of writing digital diaries during and following patient death.

Hypothesis: The ICU digital diary intervention will prove feasible, acceptable and potentially efficacious in reducing bereaved family members' PTSD, anxiety and depression at 1 and 3 months post-patient death compared with baseline measurements.

Design and Subjects: A two-arm, assessor-blind pilot randomised controlled trial with subsequent qualitative process evaluation. Forty family members of ICU patients receiving life-sustaining treatment will be recruited from three Hong Kong public hospitals and randomised 1:1 to intervention or control groups.

Instruments: Feasibility of Intervention Measure (FIM), Acceptability of Intervention Measure (AIM), Intervention Appropriateness Measure (IAM), Impact of Event Scale-Revised (IES-R), Posttraumatic Stress Syndrome-14 (PTSS-14) and Hospital Anxiety and Depression Scale (HADS).

Intervention: Family-authored digital ICU diary via WhatsApp, commencing when a patient's treatment is deemed life-sustaining, continuing through death and a one-month bereavement period.

Main Outcome Measures: Primary: recruitment rate, retention rate, compliance, feasibility, acceptability and appropriateness. Secondary: symptoms of PTSD, anxiety and depression.

Data Analysis: Descriptive statistics for feasibility outcomes; repeated measures ANOVA and linear mixed effects models for psychological outcomes; thematic analysis for qualitative data.

Conditions

  • Bereavement

Interventions

BEHAVIORAL

Family-authored Digital ICU Diary Intervention

From medical consideration of life-sustaining treatment through patient death + 1 month post-death (approximately 4 weeks active writing, then wound down)

OTHER

Standard Care

Standard care without the digital ICU diary intervention

Sponsors & Collaborators

  • The University of Hong Kong

    lead OTHER

Study Design

Allocation
RANDOMIZED
Purpose
HEALTH_SERVICES_RESEARCH
Masking
SINGLE
Model
PARALLEL

Eligibility

Min Age
18 Years
Sex
ALL
Healthy Volunteers
No

Timeline & Regulatory

Start
2026-09-01
Primary Completion
2029-02-28
Completion
2029-08-31

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Read the full study record

This page highlights key information. For complete eligibility criteria, study locations, investigator contacts, and the full protocol, visit the original record on ClinicalTrials.gov.

View NCT07788768 on ClinicalTrials.gov