CUHK_CCT00278

2011-03-24

none

CUHK Direct Grant for Research #2009.2.041

SPHPC Student Research Grant

CUHK Direct Grant for Research #2009.2.041

SPHPC Student Research Grant

Effectiveness of Psychological First Aid training in improving self-efficacy and mental health outcomes for Chinese emergency responders: A Randomized Controlled Trial

Randomized Controlled Trial on the effectiveness of pre-disaster training of Psychological First Aid among Emergency Responders

Nil

China (including Hong Kong)

Nil

Interventional

2011-04-02

458

Recruiting

Participants’ knowledge in disaster mental health, knowledge in Psychological First Aid, self-efficacy in delivering help in times of emergencies and actual helping behavior will be measured as the primary end-points.

Participants’ psychological well-being, psychological distress and coping responses to stressful events and life satisfaction will be measured as secondary end-points. The following measures will be administered at pre-training, post-training, 3-month and 6-month follow-up evaluations.
General Health Questionnaire. The 28-item scale was used as a measure of general psychopathology (Goldberg, 1978). The responses were scored by 4-point Likert scale. The instrument has been widely used in disaster research (Heir, Piatigorsky & Weisaeth, 2009). The reliability and validity of the Chinese version of GHQ-28 has been verified in local studies (Chan, 1995).
Depression Anxiety Stress Scales – short version (DASS21). Depression, anxiety, and stress will be measured by the DASS21 (Lovibond & Lovibond, 1995). Chinese version of DASS-21 was available in the literature (Taouk, Lovibond, & Laube, 2001). Participants will be asked to indicate how applicable the statements in describing their states or feelings over the past week. The responses were scored by 4-point Likert scale from 0 (did not apply to me at all) to 3 (applied to me very much, or most of the time). DASS21 were validated as representative of the full version of DASS with 42 items (Henry & Crawford, 2005).
Impact of Event Scale-Revised. The 22-item scale was included to examine the presence and intensity of post-traumatic stress symptoms. Participants responded to each item on a five-point Likert scale, ranging from 0=absence of a symptom to 4=maximum severity. There are three subscales, including intrusion, avoidance and hyperarousal). A change in the proportion of participants with IES-R score >=33 will be used to evaluate the clinical change. The Chinese version of the IES-R was found to have good internal consistency (Wu & Chan, 2004).
Brief COPE. Brief COPE consists of 28 items measuring 14 different coping responses (Carver, 1997). Each coping response will be assessed by 2 items and participants will rate each item on a 4-point Likert scale from 1 to 4. Higher score indicates more frequent use of the coping reaction. This scale has been used to assess coping in relation to national outbreak of infectious disease (Sim, Chan, Chong, Chua, & Soon, 2010). In the present study, the scale was translated into Chinese using the back-translation method.
Life satisfaction. Life satisfaction was assessed by combining the 5-item Satisfaction with Life Scale (Diener, Emmons, Larsen & Griffin, 1985) and one item from the Delighted-Terrible Scale (Andrews & Withey, 1976). Participants rated the extent to which they endorsed each item on a 6-point Likert scale from 1 (strongly disagree) to 6 (strongly agree).
Trauma History Questionnaire. History of exposure to potentially traumatic events was assessed by the shortened 22-item Trauma History Questionnaire (Green, 1996). The scale measured lifetime occurrence of a variety of traumatic events in three categories: crime, general disaster/trauma, and sexual and physical assault experiences. The subject indicates, for the first two sets of items, whether or not they have ever had the experience (yes/no), and if yes, the number of times and the age of occurrence. For the latter set of items, the subject indicates whether they have had the experience (yes/no), whether it was repeated, and, if yes, how often and at what age (s).
Multidimensional Scale of Perceived Social Support (MSPSS). The perceived social support obtained from significant others, family, and friends was measured by the 12-item MSPSS (Zimet, 1988). Sample items included “There is a special person with whom I can share my joys and sorrows” and “My friends really try to help me”. Participants rated the extent to which they endorsed each item on a 7-point Likert scale from 1 (very strongly disagree) to 7 (very strongly agree).It has shown good psychometric properties. The Chinese version of the MSPSS has produced 2 factors: social support from family and friends and showed good internal consistency (Chou, 2000).
Connor-Davidson Resilience Scale (CD-RISC). Resiliency of the participants were measured by the 25-item CD-RISC (Connor & Davidson 2003). Sample items included “able to adapt to change,” “tend to bounce back after illness or hardship,” and “have a strong sense of purpose”. The participants were asked to rate each item with reference to the previous month. If a particular situation (eg, stressor, change, and challenge) described in the items had not happened within the time frame, the participants were asked to respond on how they would react if such a situation occurred. Participants rated the extent to which they endorsed each item on a 5-point Likert scale from 0 (not true at all) to 4 (true all the time). The total score ranges from 0 to 100, with higher scores indicating higher levels of resilience. The Chinese version of the CD-RISC was found to have good internal consistency (Yu & Zhang, 2007).
Demographics Variables. Age, gender, ethnicity, education level, occupation, marital status and psychiatric history would also be measured.
Satisfaction with intervention. Participants assigned to the PFA condition will be asked to rate the importance of various components of the intervention, and overall satisfaction with the intervention at the end of the program.

2012-05-16