Can a short residential group programme with WhatsApp follow-up for women be delivered and kept up well enough to test in a full trial? A feasibility study
| ISRCTN | ISRCTN13607837 |
|---|---|
| DOI | https://doi.org/10.1186/ISRCTN13607837 |
| Sponsor | University of Bucharest |
| Funder | Investigator initiated and funded |
- Submission date
- 02/07/2026
- Registration date
- 02/07/2026
- Last edited
- 02/07/2026
- Recruitment status
- No longer recruiting
- Overall study status
- Completed
- Condition category
- Mental and Behavioural Disorders
Plain English summary of protocol
Background and study aims
Many short, intensive group programmes feel helpful while they run, but the hard part is keeping the changes going afterwards. This study looked back at a 2019 programme for women that combined a few days of intensive group work (psychological exercises, eating and lifestyle education, and physical activity) with nine weeks of follow-up support sent through WhatsApp. The aim was not to prove the programme works, but to find out whether it can be run smoothly, whether women stay involved, whether the questionnaires can be completed, and whether the WhatsApp follow-up is actually used - so we can decide what to improve before testing the programme properly in a future trial.
Who can participate?
Adult women (aged 18 and over) who wanted to take part in a residential lifestyle programme and could complete questionnaires in Romanian.
What does the study involve?
Everyone took part in the same programme: a five-day residential group course, then nine weeks of weekly WhatsApp prompts (small experiential tasks linked to keeping up healthy habits), with individual written support added from week four. There was no comparison group. Participants filled in questionnaires before the course, just after it, and three months later, covering psychological well-being, eating behaviour, and confidence about exercise. The study also looked at what participants wrote and shared in the WhatsApp follow-up.
What are the possible benefits and risks of participating?
Participants could gain from the programme's psychological and lifestyle content and from the follow-up support. The activities carried little risk; women in acute crisis were not enrolled, well-being was monitored, and there was a written procedure for offering help or referral if anyone became distressed. No safety problems occurred.
Where is the study run from?
The University of Bucharest (Romania), with the residential part held at a retreat centre in Sinaia, Romania.
When is the study starting and how long is it expected to run for?
April 2019 to September 2019. The residential course ran in May 2019, and the final follow-up was in late summer 2019.
Who is funding the study?
The study was investigator-initiated and not externally funded; participants paid for their own attendance at the residential programme.
Who is the main contact?
Dr Ligiana Mihaela Petre, ligiana.petre@fpse.unibuc.ro
Contact information
Public, Scientific, Principal investigator
Faculty of Psychology and Educational Sciences, University of Bucharest, Șoseaua Panduri 90, Sector 5
Bucharest
050663
Romania
| Phone | +40 213 181 550 |
|---|---|
| ligiana.petre@fpse.unibuc.ro |
Study information
| Primary study design | Interventional |
|---|---|
| Allocation | N/A: single arm study |
| Masking | Open (masking not used) |
| Control | Uncontrolled |
| Assignment | Single |
| Purpose | Feasibility/pilot study evaluating delivery, retention, measurement, and digital-aftercare engagement of a lifestyle intervention, in preparation for a future controlled trial |
| Scientific title | Feasibility of a brief intensive residential group lifestyle intervention with WhatsApp aftercare in community-dwelling adult women: a single-group convergent mixed-methods study |
| Study objectives | The study examined whether a brief intensive residential group programme with WhatsApp aftercare for women could be delivered, retained, and measured well enough to justify a future controlled trial; whether initial aftercare uptake translated into sustained engagement; and which behaviour-maintenance processes the aftercare actually evidenced. No efficacy hypothesis was tested; preliminary change signals were characterised descriptively to inform outcome selection and variance plausibility for a future trial. |
| Ethics approval(s) |
Approved 27/02/2019, Research Ethics Committee (Comisia de Etică a Cercetării), University of Bucharest (Strada Academiei nr. 14, Sector 5, Bucharest, 010014, Romania; +40 21 313 65 29; cometc@unibuc.ro), ref: Decision No. 12/27.02.2019 (CEC Registration No. 43/27.02.2019) |
| Health condition(s) or problem(s) studied | Promotion of psychological well-being and healthy lifestyle behaviours (eating behaviour and physical activity) in community-dwelling adult women |
| Intervention | Single-arm study; no comparator. All participants received the same two-part intervention. (1) A brief intensive residential group programme delivered over five programme days (approximately 40 hours across 10 sessions) at a residential centre, combining experiential psychological work (humanistic-experiential techniques, including two-chair dialogue and creative-expressive exercises), eating-behaviour psychoeducation, structured physical activity, and body-awareness/psychocorporal work. (2) A subsequent 9-week individual aftercare protocol delivered via WhatsApp: a weekly experiential prompt mapped to a behaviour-maintenance theme (Kwasnicka et al., 2016), a mid-week reminder, and, from Week 4, an individualised asynchronous psychological-assistance message. Prompts were clinician-tailored to each participant's psychological profile. Messages were sent individually (not in a group chat). Assessments were self-report questionnaires at three timepoints (pre-intervention, post-intervention, 3-month follow-up). |
| Intervention type | Behavioural |
| Primary outcome measure(s) |
|
| Key secondary outcome measure(s) |
|
| Completion date | 10/09/2019 |
Eligibility
| Participant type(s) | |
|---|---|
| Age group | Mixed |
| Lower age limit | 18 Years |
| Upper age limit | 100 Years |
| Sex | Female |
| Target sample size at registration | 18 |
| Total final enrolment | 18 |
| Key inclusion criteria | 1. Female sex 2. Aged 18 years or older 3. No acute psychiatric condition (psychosis, active suicidality, acute substance use disorder) 4. Sufficient Romanian proficiency to complete questionnaires and take part in group activities 5. Written informed consent |
| Key exclusion criteria | 1. Current psychiatric crisis requiring immediate clinical intervention 2. Concurrent participation in another structured psychological intervention |
| Date of first enrolment | 06/04/2019 |
| Date of final enrolment | 25/04/2019 |
Locations
Countries of recruitment
- Romania
Study participating centre
Bucharest
050663
Romania
Results and Publications
| Individual participant data (IPD) Intention to share | Yes |
|---|---|
| IPD sharing plan | The de-identified quantitative datasets generated and/or analysed during the current study will be stored in a publicly available repository (Open Science Framework; DOI to be added on publication) and are available from the corresponding author on reasonable request (Dr Ligiana Mihaela Petre, ligiana.petre@fpse.unibuc.ro). Written informed consent covered assessment data and aftercare responses; data were anonymised before analysis. The qualitative aftercare data (participants' personal text, photographs, and audio) are not expected to be made available, because their sensitive, identifiable nature and the scope of participant consent preclude public deposition. |
Editorial Notes
02/07/2026: Study’s existence confirmed by the Research Ethics Committee (Comisia de Etică a Cercetării), University of Bucharest, Romania.
