Evaluation of a Bowel and Bladder Health Management Program for Individuals With Spinal Cord Injury (SCI)

Summary

This study will look at the use of a telehealth version of a self management program in individuals with both new onset and chronic traumatic spinal cord injuries. The program is called Health Mechanics. It is meant to enhance self management skills related to neurogenic bladder and bowel management to prevent associated problems and improve Quality of Life (QOL). This program is based on the needs and strengths of individuals with SCI. It focuses on enhancing skills, encouraging positive health behaviors, empowering people within their own environments, and recognizing that people differ in their resources and abilities. The skills that are part of the intervention are: attitude, self-monitoring, problem-solving, communication, organization and stress management. This study will address those skills in the context of bladder and bowel health, with expectations that these skills to be useful in other areas of life as well.

The investigators hypothesize that individuals in the Health Mechanics intervention group will:

* show greater improvements in problem solving skills, healthy attitudes about disability and knowledge of SCI management skills than will the control group
* have greater adherence to recommended bladder and bowel management behaviors than the control group
* have fewer bladder and bowel complications than the control group
* have higher levels of QOL than the control group

In other words, this study will investigate the effectiveness of a telehealth version of Health Mechanics to enhance self-management skills related to neurogenic bladder and bowel management in an attempt to prevent associated complications and improve QOL.

Conditions

• Injuries, Spinal Cord
• Neurogenic Bowel
• Urinary Bladder, Neurogenic

Interventions

BEHAVIORAL

Health Mechanics Program

The intervention will consist of six modules that will address attitudes, self-monitoring, communication and organizational skills, problem solving skills and stress management as presented through the Health Mechanics program. These modules are designed to take place over 6 phone calls of approximately 45 minutes each. In order to provide flexibility for the participants, the quantity and duration of calls may vary depending on the extent that the participant completes the homework and the amount of time they need to learn the skill.

Sponsors & Collaborators

• U.S. Department of Education

  collaborator FED

• University of Michigan

  lead OTHER

Principal Investigators

• Michelle A Meade, PhD · University of Michigan

Study Design

Allocation

RANDOMIZED

Purpose

TREATMENT

Masking

SINGLE

Model

PARALLEL

Eligibility

Min Age

18 Years

Sex

ALL

Healthy Volunteers

No

Timeline & Regulatory

Start

2013-10-28

Primary Completion

2017-02-21

Completion

2017-02-21

Countries

• United States

Study Locations