Discrimination and Mental Health of Older Korean Adults in the U.S.: Feasibility and Pilot Trial of a Culturally Tailored Mindfulness-Positive Psychological Intervention Using Virtual Reality
Trial Snapshot
- Phase
- Not Applicable
- Status
- Completed
- Enrollment
- 31
- Locations
- 3
- Primary Endpoint
- Racism-related stress
Study Overview
Brief Summary
This study is to explore the experience of older Korean adults with anti-Asian racism in the U.S. and investigate the feasibility, acceptability, and preliminary efficacy of a virtual reality-based culturally tailored mindfulness-positive psychological intervention. Primary outcome is racism-related stress and secondary outcomes are negative mental health (e.g., anxiety, depressive symptoms, and anxiety) and positive psychological well-being (e.g., positive affect, optimism, life engagement, mindful attention awareness).
Study Design
- Study Type
- Interventional
- Allocation
- Randomized
- Intervention Model
- Parallel
- Primary Purpose
- Health Services Research
- Masking
- Single (Participant)
Eligibility Criteria
- Ages
- 60 Years to — (Adult, Older Adult)
- Sex
- All
- Accepts Healthy Volunteers
- Yes
Inclusion Criteria
- •U.S. Korean Americans/immigrants
- •≥ 60 years of age
- •Korean fluency
- •no medical history of cognitive impairments (e.g., dementia or Alzheimer-related diseases)
- •self-reported direct experience of discrimination as per the Everyday Discrimination Scale
Exclusion Criteria
- •severe cognitive impairment denoting dementia
- •other ethnicities rather than Korean Americans/immigrants
- •younger than 60 years of age
- •cannot speak and read Korean
- •have not experienced any discrimination
- •serious sensory problems negating the use of virtual reality
- •medical history of epilepsy, seizures, or vertigo
- •experience in mindfulness or meditation-based programs
Arms & Interventions
Intervention group
As the intervention group, the participants should participate in three weekly scheduled mindfulness-positive psychological intervention sessions using virtual reality for 15 - 20 minutes per session.
Intervention: culturally tailored mindfulness-positive psychological intervention (Behavioral)
Waitlist group
As the waitlist group, no treatment was given to the participants, while the intervention group participated in the mindfulness-positive psychological intervention for three weeks. After the three-week waiting period, the participants were contacted and asked to complete the post-measurements. After completion, the participants started with the three-week mindfulness-positive psychological intervention using virtual reality for 15 - 20 minutes. No further data was obtained from these participants after the completion of the program.
Outcomes
Primary Outcomes
Racism-related stress
Time Frame: Pretest (baseline) and posttest (3 weeks later)
The primary outcome is the racism-related stress measured by vicarious racism. Vicarious racism involves seven items that measure the frequency of hearing about or seeing other people of the same racial group experiencing racism: 1) in public or 2) in the news, 3) from romantic partners or, 4) friends and family members, 5) heard by politicians and 6) other public figures, and 7) seeing racist posts on social media during the Coronavirus Disease 2019 pandemic: 0 (never) - 5 (every day). Regarding racism-related stress, participants answer three questions: 1) the degree to which participants thought about these experiences (0 \[never\] - 4 \[always\]) and 2) how distressed, and 3) concerned they were about these experiences (0 \[not at all\] - 4 \[extremely\]; Cronbach's alpha = 0.89).
Secondary Outcomes
- Perceived stress(Pretest (baseline) and posttest (3 weeks later))
- Optimism(Pretest (baseline) and posttest (3 weeks later))
- Positive affect(Pretest (baseline) and posttest (3 weeks later))
- Life engagement(Pretest (baseline) and posttest (3 weeks later))
- Mindful attention awareness(Pretest (baseline) and posttest (3 weeks later))
- Technology acceptance(After every sessions (1 week later, 2 weeks later, 3 weeks later))
- Patient-Reported Outcomes Measurement Information System Bank v1.0 - Anxiety(Pretest (baseline) and posttest (3 weeks later))
- Everyday discrimination(Pretest (baseline))
- Virtual reality safety(After every sessions (1 week later, 2 weeks later, 3 weeks later))
- Patient-Reported Outcomes Measurement Information System Bank v1.0 - Depression(Pretest (baseline) and posttest (3 weeks later))