A Socio-ecological Approach for Improving Self-management in Adolescents With SCD

Trial statusRecruiting
Trial phaseNot applicable
Trial typeInterventional
Biological sexAll
Age13-21
SponsorChildren's Hospital Medical Center, Cincinnati

About this trial

The goal of this clinical trial is to evaluate the impact of SCThrive (a behavioral self-management intervention) on patient activation, self-management behaviors, daily functioning, and emergency room visits in 260 adolescents and young adults with sickle cell disease (SCD) ages 13-21 receiving care at 1 of 4 pediatric SCD clinics.

The main question\[s\]it aims to answer are:

* Does SCThrive improve patient activation? * Does SCThrive improve self-management behaviors, daily functioning, and decrease emergency room visits? * Are any improvements maintained 3 months after treatment?

Participants will complete self-management related surveys before, after, and 3 months following their participation in an 8- week, virtual group intervention with an accompanying mobile app (SCThrive).

Researchers will compare outcomes for participants who receive SCThrive and participants who receive uniform standard care (SCHealthED which = standard of care plus SCD educational text messages) to see if there are differences in patient activation, self-management behaviors, daily functioning, and emergency room visits.

Eligibility criteria

This trial does not accept healthy volunteers

Qualifiers

Patient of a participating SCD Clinic

Confirmed diagnosis of SCD

13-21 years of age

Disqualifiers

Another chronic disease (which would complicate measurement of patient activation)

Non-English-speaking

Cognitive or psychiatric disorder that the physician or study therapists believe would impair study participation.

Trial design

Design model

Parallel

Treatments tested in this trial

  • SCThrive

    Behavioral

    SCThrive is a virtual, 8-week, virtual group-based, behavioral self-management intervention that includes daily use of a companion mobile app.

  • SCHealthED

    Other intervention

    Standard of care plus 7 SCD educational text messages to ensure education is uniform across sites

Treatment groups

310 Participants
are divided into 2 treatment groups
Group A: Active TreatmentActive comparator 1 intervention
Group B: Control ConditionPlacebo comparator 1 intervention

Trial outcomes

Primary outcomes

1

Patient Activation

Self-reported patient activation as measured by the Patient Activation Measure -13 (PAM-13), which is a 13 item measure on skills, knowledge, confidence and readiness for self-management developed by Hibbard et al., 2005. Items are rated on a 4-point Likert scale of 1 = "Disagree Strongly" to 3 = "Strongly Agree." Raw scores range from 13 to 52 and are converted to scores that range from 0 to 100. This score was then divided into four levels of activation, which reflect a developmental progression from being passive with regard to one's health to being proactive: Level 1 (score of 0.0 - 47.0), Level 2 (47.1 - 55.1), Level 3 (55.2 - 72.4), and Level 4 (72.5 - 100). Higher scores indicate more behavioral activation.

Time frame
baseline, up to 4 weeks after treatment ends, 3 to 4 months after treatment ends

Secondary outcomes

1

Self-Management Behaviors

self-reported self-management behaviors as measured by the Transition Readiness Assessment Questionnaire - 6 (TRAQ-6), which is a well-validated 20-item questionnaire that measures the skills needed to manage a chronic condition independently. Items are rated on a 5-point Likert scale of 1 = "No, I do not know how" to 5 = "Yes, I always do this when I need to" and divided into 5 subscales: Managing Medication, Appointment Keeping, Tracking Health Issues, Talking with Providers, and Managing Daily Activities. Overall and subscale scores are calculated by averaging the scores of answered items. Mean scores range from 1 to 5 with higher scores indicating better self-management.

Time frame
baseline, up to 4 weeks after treatment ends, 3 to 4 months after treatment ends
2

Daily Functioning

The Functional Disability Inventory is a self-report measure of limitations in children's physical and psychosocial functioning due to their physical health. The instrument consists of 15 items concerning activity limitations due to "being sick or not feeling well" during the past 2 weeks. Total scores ranging from 0 to 60 are computed by summing the ratings for each of the 15 items on the FDI. Higher scores indicate greater perceived functional disability.

Time frame
baseline, up to 4 weeks after treatment ends, 3 to 4 months after treatment ends
3

Emergency Room (ER) Visits

number of emergency room visits

Time frame
6 months prior to treatment; 6 months post-treatment
4

Self-Management Skills

Participants complete the UNC TRxANSITION Scale, an interview administered by trained independent evaluators to measure the skills of youth with chronic conditions. For this study, we will administer 6 of the 10 possible subscales: Type of Chronic Health Condition, Medications, Adherence, Nutrition, Self-Management Skills, and New Health Care Providers. Each item is scored individually as either 1 (adequate knowledge/skill mastery), 0.5 (some knowledge/skill attainment), or 0 (no knowledge/skill attainment). Higher scores indicate better self-management. Subscale scores are calculated by dividing the patient's score by the total possible subscale score. Subscale scores are then combined to create a total score, ranging from 0 to 10, but since we will only use 6 scales, 0 to 6. Total and subscale proportion scores will be used in analyses.

Time frame
baseline, up to 4 weeks after treatment ends, 3 to 4 months after treatment ends

Other outcomes

Sponsors and contacts

Click on the lead sponsor to view all of their trials.

Children's Hospital Medical Center, Cincinnati

Lead sponsor

Nemours Children's Health System

Collaborator

Emory University

Collaborator

Children's Hospital of Philadelphia

Collaborator