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

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.

Conditions

• Medication Adherence

Interventions

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.

Sponsors & Collaborators

• National Institutes of Health (NIH)

  collaborator NIH

• Children's Hospital Los Angeles

  lead OTHER

Principal Investigators

• Caitlin Sayegh, PhD · Children's Hospital Los Angeles

Study Design

Allocation

RANDOMIZED

Purpose

TREATMENT

Masking

NONE

Model

PARALLEL

Eligibility

Min Age

15 Years

Max Age

21 Years

Sex

ALL

Healthy Volunteers

No

Timeline & Regulatory

Start

2020-08-01

Primary Completion

2022-08-30

Completion

2022-08-30

Countries

• United States

Study Locations