CClinicalTrials.gg
CompletedNCT06576349Updated Aug 28, 2024

A Single-arm Pilot and Feasibility Study of the CALM Hearts Intervention

An interventional study of Compassionate And Loving Mindset towards Heart Health Risk (CALM Hearts) Intervention in Self-Compassion, Physical Inactivity and Cardiovascular Diseases, sponsored by University of Manitoba. Completed at 1 site in Canada. Open to female participants aged 55 Years to 75 Years. Per ClinicalTrials.gov, last updated 2024-08-28.

Sponsored by University of Manitoba · Not applicable, Interventional, and Prevention

From the registry’s dates

  • Registered 3 years 7 months after the study started (first participant enrolled Jan 2021, registered Aug 2024).
Phase
Not applicable
Study type
Interventional
Enrollment
11
Allocation
Not applicable
Ages
55 Years to 75 Years
Sex
Female
01

Study summary

The primary aims of this study are to explore the feasibility, acceptability, and safety, of the Compassionate And Loving Mindset towards heart health risk (CALM Hearts) intervention. The CALM Hearts intervention is a self-compassion intervention designed to help women cope with their cardiovascular disease (CVD) risk and adopt health behaviours. Through this research, we expect to identify opportunities to increase the feasibility and acceptability of the intervention. The secondary aims of this study are to observe the directionality of mean changes in behavioural and psychological outcomes from Pre- to Post-Intervention. We predict that all behavioural and psychological outcomes will change in a favourable direction.

Participants will be asked to complete three, weekly, intervention sessions in which they will apply self-compassion to coping with their CVD risk and increasing a chosen health behaviour. The intervention will be conducted virtually and led by a trained facilitator.

Feasibility will be assessed using pre-established criteria. After completing the intervention participants will be given the option to provide qualitative data on acceptability and safety.

Participants will also complete a battery of behaviour and psychological outcome measures at pre-intervention and one-week post-intervention

Read the detailed description

Participants will be recruited via phone and email and complete an online written consent form

After consenting, participants will complete baseline measures housed on SurveyMonkey (https://www.surveymonkey.com) and will receive a fillable online workbook to complete throughout the intervention. The CALM Hearts intervention will be conducted individually (i.e., one facilitator meeting with one participant) over the phone or via Zoom videoconferencing once per week for three weeks. The intervention facilitator will be a research assistant with training in self-compassion and health psychology.

At pre-intervention, participants will complete behavioural and psychological measures (baseline survey).

In Session 1 (90 minutes), the facilitator will present report cards outlining each participant's CVD risk factors as determined by their participation in a previous study. Immediately after receiving their risk information, participants will complete an online questionnaire assessing their reactions to the CVD risk report (Session 1 measures). The facilitator will then introduce self-compassion as a tool for coping with CVD risk and adopting health behaviours. Finally, the facilitator will work with participants to set a health behaviour goal for the end of the intervention that follows the SMART goals framework (i.e., Specific, Measurable, Attainable, Realistic, and Time-bound). After Session 1, participants will receive a physical copy of their CVD risk report card in the mail.

Sessions 2 (60 minutes) and 3 (60 minutes) will apply self-compassion to participants' health behaviours and CVD risk. These sessions will include a lesson on self-compassion, a workbook activity, and a discussion with the facilitator.

After Sessions 1 and 2, participants will independently complete self-compassionate writing activities in their workbooks. We will ask participants to report the percentage of workbook activities they finish each week (0 to 100%).

One week after Session 3, participants will complete the post-intervention questionnaire and will be debriefed.

Participants will be invited to provide feedback about their experiences in the intervention via an open-ended online survey or telephone interview after the intervention concludes. These responses will contribute to assessing intervention acceptability.

02

Conditions studied

  • Self-Compassion
  • Physical Inactivity
  • Cardiovascular Diseases

Keywords

  • Self-compassion
  • physical activity
  • heart disease
  • cardiovascular disease
  • women
  • women's health
  • self-regulation
  • coping
  • feasibility
  • acceptability
  • pilot study
  • single-arm
03

In context

Cardiovascular Diseases

4,904 studies on the registry are indexed under Cardiovascular Diseases; 919 are open to participants now.

This study's enrollment of 11 is below the median of 100 across 2,738 interventional studies indexed under Cardiovascular Diseases.

Browse Cardiovascular Diseases studies →

Lead sponsor

University of Manitoba is the lead sponsor of 542 studies on the registry; 87 are open to participants now.

Of its 12 completed or terminated interventional studies of FDA-regulated products, 5 (42%) have results posted.

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

04

Who can participate

Ages eligible
55 Years to 75 Years
Sexes eligible
Female
Accepts healthy volunteers
No

Inclusion criteria

  1. Participants were identified through the Women's Advanced Risk-assessment in Manitoba (WARM) Hearts Cohort (Rose et al., 2021).
  2. Female sex is an inclusion criterion of the WARM Hearts Cohort. Therefore, all participants eligible for the CALM Hearts intervention were female.
  3. Aged 55 to 75 years
  4. Engaged in less than 150 minutes of weekly moderate-to-vigorous physical activity (i.e., not meeting the Canadian Physical Activity guidelines).
  5. Had a moderate to high Framingham CVD risk score (D'Agostino et al., 2008), consented to future research contact after participation in the WARM Hearts Cohort.
  6. Scored moderate to low on the 26-item self-compassion scale (1 to 3.6 / 5; Neff, 2003)

Exclusion criteria

Exclusion Criteria:

  • Not meeting the inclusion criteria
05

Study design

Phase
Not applicable
Primary purpose
Prevention
Allocation
Not applicable
Intervention model
Single group
Masking
None (open label)
Enrollment
11 participants (actual)

Study arms

  • Experimental
    CALM Hearts Self-Compassion Intervention for Women at Risk for Heart Disease

    The CALM Hearts intervention will be conducted individually (i.e., one facilitator meeting with one participant) over the phone or via Zoom videoconferencing once per week for three weeks. Session 1 (90 minutes): Participants will learn about their CVD risk factors. The facilitator will introduce self-compassion as a tool for coping with CVD risk and adopting health behaviours. Participants will set a health behaviour goal to accomplish by intervention end. Sessions 2 (60 minutes) and 3 (60 minutes each): Lesson, workbook activity, and discussion on applying self-compassion to health behaviours and CVD risk. Participants will independently complete self-compassionate writing activities in their workbooks after Sessions 1 and 2.

    Behavioral: Compassionate And Loving Mindset towards Heart Health Risk (CALM Hearts) Intervention

Interventions

  • BehavioralCompassionate And Loving Mindset towards Heart Health Risk (CALM Hearts) Intervention

    Self-compassion and health behaviour change intervention for women at risk for cardiovascular disease

    Also known as: CALM Hearts

06

What researchers measure

Primary outcomes

  1. Feasibility Domain 1: Recruitment

    Recruitment will be assessed using the following criteria: * Percentage of WARM Hearts participants who are eligible. Criterion = Observe and report * Percentage of eligible participants who agree to participate. Criterion = Observe and report * Average time for enrollment, baseline questionnaire and scheduling. Criterion = 2 weeks * Most successful recruitment strategy. Criterion = Observe and report

    Time frame: Assessed from baseline to 1-week post-intervention

  2. Feasibility Domain 2: Retention and Adherence

    Retention and adherence will be assessed using the following criteria: * Participant retention rate. Criterion = 80-85% at post-intervention * Demographics of withdrawn participants. Criterion = Observe and report * Reasons for withdrawal. Criterion = Observe and report * Session attendance. Criterion = 90%-95% attendance * Rates of questionnaire completion. Criterion = 80% overall completion * Home practice compliance. Criterion = 75% compliance

    Time frame: Assessed from baseline to 1-week post-intervention

  3. Feasibility Domain 3: Fidelity

    Fidelity will be assessed using the following criteria: * Completion of all slides in sessions. Criterion = 90%-95% slide completion * Completion of topics in sessions. Criterion = 90%-95% topic completion * Completion of sessions within the allotted time. Criterion = 90%-95% timely completion * Quality of intervention delivery. Criterion = \>80% fidelity as scored by the senior researcher * Technical difficulties with intervention delivery. Criterion = Observe and report

    Time frame: Assessed from baseline to 1-week post-intervention

  4. Feasibility Domain 4: Capacity

    Capacity will be assessed using the following criteria: - Time required to deliver all aspects of the intervention. Criterion = Observe and report

    Time frame: Assessed from baseline to 1-week post-intervention

  5. Acceptability of the CALM Hearts Intervention

    Acceptability will be assessed using post-intervention interviews and open-ended surveys administered to participants. Suggestions for increasing acceptability will be noted.

    Time frame: Assessed at 1-week post-intervention

  6. Safety of the CALM Hearts Intervention

    Safety will be assessed using post-intervention interviews and open-ended surveys administered to participants. The criterion for safety = 100% safe.

    Time frame: Assessed at 1-week post-intervention

Secondary outcomes

  1. Self-Compassion

    Self-Compassion Scale (Neff, 2003): Participants responded to 26 questions about their tendency to treat themselves with self-compassion or self-criticism using a five-point Likert scale (1 = almost never to 5 = almost always). A total score of self-compassion was determined by adding the means of all six sub-scales together and dividing by six (Neff, 2003b). Scores from this scale have good test-retest reliability (r = .80-.93) with high internal consistency (α = .92; Neff, 2003b). A sample item includes: "When things are going badly for me, I see the difficulties as part of life that everyone goes through".

    Time frame: Assessed at baseline and 1-week post-intervention

  2. Health Anxiety

    Health anxiety subscale of the Multidimensional Health Questionnaire (Snell \& Johnson,1997): This scale consists of five items assessing participants' health anxiety on a 5-point Likert scale (1 = not at all characteristic of me to 5 = very characteristic of me). A mean score is created to capture overall health anxiety. The Multidimensional Health Questionnaire is reliable and validated (Snell \& Johnson, 1997). A sample item is: "I feel anxious when I think about my health".

    Time frame: Assessed at baseline and 1-week post-intervention

  3. Illness Self-Blame

    Illness self-blame subscale of the Multidimensional Health Questionnaire (Snell \& Johnson, 1997): This reliable and validated measure (Snell \& Johnson, 1997) uses five items rated on a 5-point Likert scale (1 = not at all characteristic of me to 5 = very characteristic of me) to create a mean illness self-blame score (Snell \& Johnson, 1997). A sample item is: "When I become sick or ill, I am the person to blame".

    Time frame: Measured during Session 1 and at 1-week post-intervention

  4. State Rumination

    State Rumination Scale (Puterman et al., 2010): Participants responded to three items with a 5-point Likert scale (1= Not at all to 5 = A lot). A mean score was calculated to capture participants' state rumination about having a heart health risk. This scale is reliable and valid (Puterman et al., 2010). A sample item is: "Did you find it hard to stop thinking about your risk for heart disease afterwards?"

    Time frame: Measured during Session 1 and at 1-week post-intervention

  5. Negative Affect

    Assessment of Negative Affect (Terry et al., 2013): Participants responded to 13 items using a 5-point Likert scale (1=not at all to 5=extremely). A mean score was calculated to assess negative affect about having a heart health risk. This measure has been used in other self-compassion research (Terry et al., 2013). A sample item is: "Rate the extent to which you feel sad about your risk for heart disease".

    Time frame: Measured during Session 1 and at 1-week post-intervention

  6. Health Promoting Behaviours

    Health Promoting Lifestyle Profile-II (Walker \& Hill-Polerecky, 1996): Participants responded to 52 questions about their engagement in various health-promoting behaviours using a 4-point Likert scale (1 = Never to 4 = Routinely). A mean score was calculated for each subscale, and a grand mean was calculated to assess overall health-promoting behaviours. This scale has demonstrated high internal consistency (Walker \& Hill-Polerecky, 1996). Participants were asked to respond to the frequency with which they engage in different behaviours, such as "Choose a diet low in fat, saturated fat, and cholesterol."

    Time frame: Assessed at baseline and 1-week post-intervention

  7. Physical Activity

    Short-form International Physical Activity Questionnaire (Craig et al, 2003): Participants reported the number of days they engaged in each intensity of physical activity and the average duration of each session. This is a reliable and valid measure (Lee et al., 2011). We used the International Physical Activity Questionnaire to calculate participants' weekly minutes of moderate-to-vigorous physical activity. A sample item includes: "During the last 7 days, how many bouts of 10 minutes or more did you complete of vigorous physical activities like heavy lifting, digging, aerobics, or fast bicycling?".

    Time frame: Assessed at baseline and 1-week post-intervention

07

Study locations

1 site
  • Faculty of Kinesiology and Recreation Management, University of Manitoba
    Winnipeg, Manitoba R3T 2N2, Canada
08

References and documents

Publications

  • Rose AV, Boreskie KF, Hay JL, Thompson L, Arora RC, Duhamel TA. Protocol for the WARM Hearts study: examining cardiovascular disease risk in middle-aged and older women - a prospective, observational cohort study. BMJ Open. 2021 May 25;11(5):e044227. doi: 10.1136/bmjopen-2020-044227. PubMed 34035097 ↗
  • Ross R, Chaput JP, Giangregorio LM, Janssen I, Saunders TJ, Kho ME, Poitras VJ, Tomasone JR, El-Kotob R, McLaughlin EC, Duggan M, Carrier J, Carson V, Chastin SF, Latimer-Cheung AE, Chulak-Bozzer T, Faulkner G, Flood SM, Gazendam MK, Healy GN, Katzmarzyk PT, Kennedy W, Lane KN, Lorbergs A, Maclaren K, Marr S, Powell KE, Rhodes RE, Ross-White A, Welsh F, Willumsen J, Tremblay MS. Canadian 24-Hour Movement Guidelines for Adults aged 18-64 years and Adults aged 65 years or older: an integration of physical activity, sedentary behaviour, and sleep. Appl Physiol Nutr Metab. 2020 Oct;45(10 (Suppl. 2)):S57-S102. doi: 10.1139/apnm-2020-0467. PubMed 33054332 ↗
  • Neff, K. D. (2003). The Development and Validation of a Scale to Measure Self-Compassion. Self and Identity, 2(3), 223-250. https://doi.org/10.1080/15298860309027
  • Snell, W. E., & Johnson, G. (1997). The Multidimensional Health Questionnaire. American Journal of Health Behavior, 21(1), 33-42.
  • Puterman, E., DeLongis, A., & Pomaki, G. (2010). Protecting us from ourselves: Social support as a buffer of trait and state rumination. Journal of Social and Clinical Psychology, 29(7), 797-820. doi:10.1521/jscp.2010.29.7.797
  • Terry ML, Leary MR, Mehta S, Henderson K. Self-compassionate reactions to health threats. Pers Soc Psychol Bull. 2013 Jul;39(7):911-26. doi: 10.1177/0146167213488213. PubMed 23813424 ↗
  • Walker, S.N., & Hill-Polerecky, D.M. (1996). Psychometric evaluation of the Health-Promoting Lifestyle Profile II. Unpublished manuscript, University of Nebraska Medical Center.
  • Craig CL, Marshall AL, Sjostrom M, Bauman AE, Booth ML, Ainsworth BE, Pratt M, Ekelund U, Yngve A, Sallis JF, Oja P. International physical activity questionnaire: 12-country reliability and validity. Med Sci Sports Exerc. 2003 Aug;35(8):1381-95. doi: 10.1249/01.MSS.0000078924.61453.FB. PubMed 12900694 ↗
  • Lee PH, Macfarlane DJ, Lam TH, Stewart SM. Validity of the International Physical Activity Questionnaire Short Form (IPAQ-SF): a systematic review. Int J Behav Nutr Phys Act. 2011 Oct 21;8:115. doi: 10.1186/1479-5868-8-115. PubMed 22018588 ↗

Individual participant data

Plan to share: Yes — Anonymized data can be made available upon request by contacting the corresponding author. Individual Participant Data includes anonymized raw survey data in the form of Excel spreadsheets, anonymized participant quotations from qualitative interviews (Microsoft Word documents), and researcher observations of the feasibility criteria (Microsoft Word documents and Excel Spreadsheets).

09

Updates

Tracking since Sep 25, 2026
No changes since tracking began. The registry record was last updated on Aug 28, 2024, before this site started recording changes on Sep 25, 2026. Its history is on ClinicalTrials.gov ↗
10

Registry details

Key details

Study ID
NCT06576349
Lead sponsor
University of Manitoba
Responsible party
Sponsor
First posted
Aug 28, 2024
Start date
Jan 4, 2021
Primary completion
Feb 10, 2021
Completion
Feb 10, 2021
Last update
Aug 28, 2024

Oversight

Data monitoring committee
No
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 Aug 2024. You cannot join it, but the record below documents what was studied.

Follow this study

Get an email when the registry record changes — status, dates, results — or when someone posts here.

Sign in to follow

Discussion

Questions and observations about this study, from anyone following it. Not medical advice, and not a channel to the study team — their contact details are on the registry record.

Sign in to join the discussion. Reading takes no account; posting does. You choose a display name, and a pseudonym is the default.

Nothing here yet. If you are running this trial, taking part in it, or weighing whether to, this is the place to say so.

Start the discussion