Cell Phone Support to Promote Medication Adherence Among Adolescents and Young Adults With Chronic Illness

Medication Adherence Clinical Trial

Official title:

Mobile Health Intervention to Promote Medication Adherence Among Adolescents and Young Adults With Chronic Illness

Clinical Trial Details — Status: Completed

Administrative data

• NCT number: NCT04241627
• Other study ID #: CHLA-20-00168
• Status: Completed
• Phase: N/A
• Start date: August 1, 2020
• Est. completion date: August 30, 2022

Study information

• Verified date: January 2024
• Source: Children's Hospital Los Angeles
• Contact: n/a
• Is FDA regulated: No
• Study type: Interventional

Clinical Trial Summary

Background: Adolescents and young adults (AYAs) with chronic illnesses often struggle to develop illness self-management skills. Mobile health (mHealth) interventions have been developed for some specific chronic illnesses, but flexible interventions that can be generalized across conditions are needed to accelerate translation.

Research Hypotheses: 1) Cell phone support (CPS) will increase medication adherence and self-management skills across a variety of health conditions; 2) CPS delivered by text message will outperform CPS delivered by phone calls; 3) Patients' perceptions of the human adherence facilitator (AF) will differ based on the mode of communication, text message versus phone calls.

Design: A randomized, controlled, 3-arm pilot trial, following community-based participatory research (CBPR) principles, will test the impact of AF delivered by phone calls or text messages on medication adherence and illness self-management. Conditions will be CPS delivered by phone calls, CPS delivered by text messages, or usual care.

Participants: Participants will include AYAs with diverse chronic illnesses aged 15-20 years (N = 60).

Methods: This study will involve piloting CPS via different communication modes in a randomized trial, informed by CBPR principles. Questionnaires and focus groups will be used to understand how patients perceive the intervention and adherence facilitator.

Main Outcome Measures: Outcomes will include medication and appointment adherence, pharmacy refill ratios, self-management skills, and perceptions of the AF.

Innovation: This study will provide new knowledge regarding how to promote illness self-management skills, and may result in an mHealth intervention with the potential to widely impact supportive care for AYAs with chronic illnesses.

Description:

The aim of this randomized pilot trial is to evaluate the acceptability, feasibility, and efficacy of CPS delivered by phone calls or text messages to AYAs with two distinct chronic illnesses, in preparation for an R01 proposal to conduct a multisite, effectiveness-implementation hybrid trial. We propose 1) assessing the feasibility, acceptability, and efficacy of CPS for improving medication adherence, 2) investigating the impact of delivering CPS through live text messages versus phone calls using quantitative and qualitative methods, and 3) evaluating patient and provider views of CPS to guide future implementation work. The proposed research follows the conceptual model, illustrated below, positing that CPS will promote adherence through engaging AYAs in calls or texts with a human AF providing social support. We predict that delivering CPS by text message will increase feasibility and acceptability, perceived social support, and adherence compared to voice delivery.

Recruitment information / eligibility

• Status: Completed
• Enrollment: 34
• Est. completion date: August 30, 2022
• Est. primary completion date: August 30, 2022
• Accepts healthy volunteers: No
• Gender: All
• Age group: 15 Years to 21 Years

Eligibility

Inclusion Criteria:

• Inclusion criteria will be 1) provider and patient agreement that medication adherence is currently <80%, 2) access to a cell phone, and 3) ability to speak and understand English.

Exclusion Criteria:

• Exclusion criteria will include cognitive impairment that precludes participants from engaging in the consent/assent process or study protocol.

Related Conditions & MeSH terms

• Chronic Disease
• Medication Adherence

Intervention

Behavioral:
• Cell Phone Support
Cell Phone Support includes short phone calls (<5 minutes) made each weekday by a human AF to provide social support, medication reminders, problem-solving coaching, incentives for answering calls, and referrals to other services. Cell Phone Support calls focus on assisting AYAs in identifying and accessing resources and support from their natural environments, such as finding ways they can receive needed help from their families, peers, medical teams, and communities. Live Text Support will deliver the same intervention, by text message.

Locations

Country	Name	City	State
United States	Children's Hospital Los Angeles	Los Angeles	California

Sponsors (2)

Lead Sponsor	Collaborator
Children's Hospital Los Angeles	National Institutes of Health (NIH)

Country where clinical trial is conducted

United States, 

References & Publications (2)

Belzer ME, Naar-King S, Olson J, Sarr M, Thornton S, Kahana SY, Gaur AH, Clark LF; Adolescent Medicine Trials Network for HIV/AIDS Interventions. The use of cell phone support for non-adherent HIV-infected youth and young adults: an initial randomized and — View Citation

Sayegh CS, Szmuszkovicz JR, Menteer J, Sherer S, Thomas D, Lestz R, Belzer M. Cell phone support to improve medication adherence among solid organ transplant recipients. Pediatr Transplant. 2018 Jun 19:e13235. doi: 10.1111/petr.13235. Online ahead of prin — View Citation

Outcome

Type	Measure	Description	Time frame	Safety issue
Primary	Self-Reported Medication Adherence	percentage of doses taken out of 100%, reported by the adolescent or young adult, assessed using a visual analogue scale	12 weeks
Primary	Behavioral Measure of Adherence	percentage of doses taken out of 100%, as measured by the whether participants opened the Medication Event Monitoring System cap the same number of times per day they were prescribed to take medication	18 weeks