Intern Health Study 2025
For patients and families
In plain language
An automatic summary of structured registry data. It is an orientation aid, not a substitute for the official protocol or a physician assessment.
- What is being studied
- The protocol lists: Intern Health Study behavioral change mobile notification.
- Who it may be relevant to
- Registry conditions: Depression - Major Depressive Disorder, Mood, Sleep, Physical Activity. Basic parameters: from 18 years · All.
- What needs checking
- Age, condition and sex are only basic indicators. Prior treatment, laboratory values and other mandatory requirements appear in the eligibility criteria below.
- Where it takes place
- United States
- Next step
- Save the trial, show it to the treating physician, and confirm current recruitment with the study center. Costs, documents and travel →
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Overview
The aim of this study is to evaluate the efficacy of using a reinforcement learning algorithm to determine the optimal content of a mobile health intervention (message delivered via smartphone) for improving the mood, physical activity, and sleep of medical interns.
Detailed description
Due to their high workloads, less sleep and physical activity and other stressors, medical interns suffer from depression at higher rates than the general population. The goal of this study is to evaluate the efficacy of a mobile health intervention intending to help prevent the degradation of health behaviors and the development of depression. The intervention sends mobile phone notifications which aim to help interns improve their mood, maintain physical activity, and obtain adequate sleep during their internship year. A reinforcement learning algorithm will use prior survey, daily mood, and wearable data to make three types of choices each day: 1) whether to send a message or not on a given day, and, if sending a message, 2) the therapeutic strategy (Behavioral Strategy, Cognitive Strategy, Mindfulness, Motivational Interviewing, Distanced Self-Talk), and 3) whether or not to include feedback (the intern's own data) in the message.
Interventions
- Behavioral Intern Health Study behavioral change mobile notification
The study's mobile app will be used to deliver push notifications. The notifications appear on the participant's phone lock screen. The notifications include 3 categories: mood notifications, activity notifications, sleep notifications. Mood notifications aim to increase the participant's mood. Activity notifications aim to increase the participant's physical activity. Sleep notifications aim to increase the participant's sleep duration. All notifications are categorized as one of five therapeut
Primary outcome measures
- Average daily mood [Time frame: Daily, through study completion at the end of intern year (1 year)]
- Average daily step count [Time frame: Daily, through study completion at the end of intern year (1 year)]
- Average nightly sleep duration [Time frame: Daily, through study completion at the end of intern year (1 year)]
- Patient Health Questionnaire-9 (PHQ-9) [Time frame: Quarterly (every 3 months for 1 year)]
Eligibility criteria
Inclusion criteria
- Medical intern during the 2025-2026 internship year
- iPhone or Android phone user
- Completed the Intern Health Study consent and baseline survey by June 20 prior to the start of intern year
Exclusion criteria
- None
Criteria are shown verbatim from the registry (in English). Final eligibility is always assessed by the study center.
Healthy volunteers: Yes
Study design
- Allocation
- N/A
- Model
- Single group
- Masking
- Open label
- Primary purpose
- Prevention
Study locations
United States · 1 center
- University of Michigan — Ann Arbor
Identifiers
NCT: NCT07052357 · HUM00033029.25