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CompletedNCT03387007Updated Dec 29, 2017

Psycho-social Support on Mental Health and Hope of Adolescents Affected by Earthquake in Nepal

An interventional study of Psychosocial support training for school teachers in Mental Health Issue (E.G., Depression, Psychosis, Personality Disorder, Substance Abuse), sponsored by Tokyo University. Completed. Open to participants aged 10 Years to 17 Years, including healthy volunteers. Per ClinicalTrials.gov, last updated 2017-12-29.

Sponsored by Tokyo University · Not applicable, Interventional, and Treatment

From the registry’s dates

  • Registered 1 year 6 months after the study started (first participant enrolled Jun 2016, registered Dec 2017).
Phase
Not applicable
Study type
Interventional
Enrollment
1,912
Allocation
Randomized
Ages
10 Years to 17 Years
Sex
All
01

Study summary

Adolescents are prone to mental health problems such as post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD) and depression which could become worse in the aftermath of disasters. However, hope can help adolescents cope with the challenges better. For resource poor disaster prone settings, school teachers can provide timely psycho-social support that could improve mental health and hope among adolescents.

Nepal is a disaster prone country that faced a devastating earthquake in 2015 that claimed thousands of lives and left many homeless which could have affected the mental health of adolescents.This study was conducted in schools of Dhading, a severely earthquake affected district and schools of Myagdi, a least affected district by earthquake in Nepal. The intervention focused on training school teachers on psycho-social support for adolescents.

Read the detailed description

Adolescents are prone to mental health problems such as post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD) and depression which could become worse in the aftermath of disasters. However, some adolescents can have better hope that helps them to cope with the challenges following adverse events such as earthquake.

Nepal is a low income and disaster prone country that ranks 11th for earthquake risks globally. In April 2015, the country faced a devastating earthquake of 7.8 Magnitude that killed thousands of people. Fourteen out of seventy five districts in Nepal were declared as severely affected districts.

However, the adolescents may not have received enough psychosocial support after the earthquake. The damage caused by earthquake was further worsened by the political instability in the country leading to delay in reconstruction work in earthquake-affected areas. Difficult circumstances following the earthquake could have affected the mental of adolescents negatively. However, the evidence on mental health status of adolescents following massive disaster such as earthquake remains inadequate.

For resource poor and disaster prone settings such as Nepal, school teachers can provide timely psychosocial support that could improve mental health and hope among adolescents. School based teacher mediated interventions could be more sustainable and feasible in the complex scenario of post-disaster settings. However, evidence on teacher mediated interventions in low resource disaster settings remain inadequate.

The objectives of this study were to assess mental health and level of hope among the adolescents in selected districts and examine the effect of school teachers' training on psychosocial support on mental health and hope among the adolescents.

The intervention for this study was schoolteachers' training on psycho-social support. A clinical psychologist provided 2-day training on psycho-social support for 22 schoolteachers (2 teachers from each intervention school). The training guidelines were adapted from the United Nations Relief and Works Agency (UNRWA) on psycho-social support for education in emergencies. The training provided basic skills to the schoolteachers so that they will be able to provide psycho-social support for children affected. The lesson learned from the training was intended to be applied by the school teachers in their everyday regular school activities. A follow up study was conducted at 6 months follow up among the adolescents to assess the change in their mental health status and hope.

02

Conditions studied

  • Mental Health Issue (E.G., Depression, Psychosis, Personality Disorder, Substance Abuse)

Keywords

  • adolescent
  • mental health
  • hope
  • psycho-social support
  • school teachers
  • earthquake
03

In context

Depression

8,577 studies on the registry are indexed under Depression; 1,720 are open to participants now.

This study's enrollment of 1,912 is above the median of 81 across 7,063 interventional studies indexed under Depression.

Browse Depression studies →

Lead sponsor

Tokyo University is the lead sponsor of 34 studies on the registry; 5 are open to participants now.

Counted across the registry records on this site, refreshed daily.

04

Who can participate

Ages eligible
10 Years to 17 Years
Sexes eligible
All
Accepts healthy volunteers
Yes

Go through the criteria one by one — yes, no or not sure — and take the list to your doctor or the study team. Kept in this browser only.

Inclusion criteria

  • Adolescents studying in grade 6, 7 and 8 of the selected schools at the time of data collection
  • Adolescents with written consent from themselves and their guardian

Exclusion criteria

Exclusion Criteria:

  • Adolescent who refused to participate
05

Study design

Phase
Not applicable
Primary purpose
Treatment
Allocation
Randomized
Intervention model
Parallel assignment
Masking
None (open label)
Enrollment
1,912 participants (actual)

Study arms

  • Experimental
    Intervention

    Two teachers from each of the schools included in this arm received training on providing psycho-social support to their students to be implemented in their regular routine school activities

    Behavioral: Psychosocial support training for school teachers

  • No intervention
    Control

    The teachers from the schools in this arm did not receive training on psycho-social support

Interventions

  • BehavioralPsychosocial support training for school teachers

    The intervention for this study was schoolteachers' training on psychosocial support.A clinical psychologist provided 2-day training (a total of 16 hours) training on psychosocial support for the schoolteachers

06

What researchers measure

Primary outcomes

  1. Change from baseline post traumatic stress symptoms at 6 months

    Post traumatic stress disorder symptoms among adolescents using Child post traumatic symptom scale symptom scale which is a 17 item scale. The minimum score is 0 and maximum score is 52. Higher score indicates higher symptoms for PTSD.

    Time frame: baseline and 6 month follow up

  2. Change from baseline depression symptoms at 6 months

    Depression symptoms among adolescents using depression self rating scale which is an 18 item scale. The minimum score is 0 and maximum score is 36. Higher scores indicate higher symptoms for depression.

    Time frame: baseline and 6 month follow up

  3. Change from baseline hope at 6 months

    Hope as an antecedent of resilience and positive aspect of mental health using Children's Hope scale which is a 6 item scale. The minimum score is 0 and maximum score is 1 and maximum score is 36. The higher score indicate higher hope.

    Time frame: baseline and 6 month follow up

07

Study locations

No study locations are listed for this record.

08

References and documents

Publications

  • Dhital R, Shibanuma A, Miyaguchi M, Kiriya J, Jimba M. Effect of psycho-social support by teachers on improving mental health and hope of adolescents in an earthquake-affected district in Nepal: A cluster randomized controlled trial. PLoS One. 2019 Oct 1;14(10):e0223046. doi: 10.1371/journal.pone.0223046. eCollection 2019. PubMed 31574127 ↗

Individual participant data

Plan to share: Undecided

09

Timeline

Tracking since Sep 25, 2026
ElapsedEstimatedEstimated, not yet reachedSimilar studies: half by the dot; the band is the middle halfHalf of similar studies reached it by the dot; the band is the middle half, from a quarter to three quarters

Ran from Jun 2016 to primary completion in Mar 2017, 9 months.

Of 3,468 non-industry interventional studies with no phase under Depression, half reached primary completion within 21 months of starting (the median), counting those still running; a quarter within 10 and three quarters within 41. This study's 9 months is below that.

Counting every sponsor, half of 3,566 studies reached it within 21 months; a quarter within 9 and three quarters within 41.

How these figures are worked out, and which studies are left out of them.

Registered
Dec 21, 2017
First posted
Dec 29, 2017
StartActual
Jun 2016
Primary completionActual
Mar 2017
CompletionActual
Dec 2017
Last update
Dec 29, 2017
What these dates mean
Start.
When the first participant enrolled; while estimated, when the study expects to open to recruitment.
Primary completion.
When the last participant was examined or treated to collect data for the study's main question, its primary outcome. A study that stopped early gives the date its data collection stopped.
Completion.
When the last participant's last visit took place, for every outcome, secondary ones and side effects included: the end of the study. Often later than primary completion, sometimes the same day.
Actual and Est.
Actual means the registry says the date has happened. Est. (estimated) is a date the sponsor plans or expects. It can still move, and the sponsor is expected to change it to actual once it has passed.
No changes since tracking began. The registry record was last updated on Dec 29, 2017, before this site started recording changes on Sep 25, 2026. Its history is on ClinicalTrials.gov ↗
10

Registry details

Key details

Study ID
NCT03387007
Lead sponsor
Tokyo University
Responsible party
Rolina Dhital (PhD Candidate, Tokyo University) — Principal investigator
First posted
Dec 29, 2017
Start date
Jun 2016
Primary completion
Mar 2017
Completion
Dec 2017
Last update
Dec 29, 2017

Study contacts

Rolina Dhital, MHSc
principal investigator · Tokyo University

Oversight

Data monitoring committee
Yes
FDA-regulated drug
No
FDA-regulated device
No
View the source record on ClinicalTrials.gov ↗

Not currently enrolling

This study is completed, as verified in Dec 2017. You cannot join it, but the record below documents what was studied.

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