Department of Psychology, Brandeis University, Waltham, Massachusetts, USA.
Division of Geriatrics and Palliative Medicine, Weill Cornell Medicine, New York, New York, USA.
Gerontologist. 2023 Oct 17;63(9):1456-1466. doi: 10.1093/geront/gnad028.
Family caregivers often experience a high level of stress, social isolation, a sedentary lifestyle, and poor mental and physical health. An exergame intervention was developed to promote physical activity and well-being in family caregivers and to test social support as a mechanism for behavior change.
The current study was a randomized pilot trial (N = 76) to compare the effectiveness of Go&Grow (social vs nonsocial exergame) to promote well-being through increased social support and physical activity for family caregivers over a 6-week intervention.
The treatment group increased significantly more than the control group in well-being (management of distress) and social support (satisfaction with contact quality). Social support served as a mechanism (mediator and moderator): The treatment group increased more than the control group in satisfaction with social contact quality, which led to more positive affect and less loneliness. Moreover, those in the treatment group who increased more in overall social support and knowing others' experiences increased their steps more than those with less support, whereas the change in steps for the control group was not related to a support level. Those in the treatment group who used more social features of the app had a greater increase in steps compared with those who used it less.
Social support in technology interventions is a promising direction to promote caregivers' well-being and physical activity. Social support served as a mechanism of behavior change that can inform more engaging, sustainable, portable, and scalable interventions in the future for sedentary and socially isolated family caregivers.Clinical Trial Registration Number: NCT05032872.
家庭照顾者通常面临较高的压力、社会孤立、久坐不动的生活方式以及较差的身心健康。本研究开发了一种运动游戏干预措施，以促进家庭照顾者的身体活动和幸福感，并检验社会支持作为行为改变的机制。
本研究为一项随机试点试验（N=76），比较了 Go&Grow（社交与非社交运动游戏）通过增加社会支持和身体活动来促进家庭照顾者幸福感的效果，干预时间为 6 周。
治疗组在幸福感（应对压力）和社会支持（对社交接触质量的满意度）方面的得分显著高于对照组。社会支持作为一种机制（中介和调节因素）：治疗组对社交接触质量的满意度提高幅度大于对照组，进而导致积极情绪增加和孤独感减少。此外，治疗组中社会支持总水平和了解他人经验增加的个体，其步数增加幅度大于支持水平较低的个体，而对照组的步数变化与支持水平无关。与较少使用应用程序社交功能的个体相比，更多使用社交功能的治疗组个体的步数增加幅度更大。
技术干预中的社会支持是促进照顾者幸福感和身体活动的一个有前途的方向。社会支持是行为改变的一种机制，可以为未来针对久坐和社会隔离的家庭照顾者提供更具吸引力、可持续性、便携性和可扩展性的干预措施提供信息。
NCT05032872。
