Breathing Retraining for Asthma Trial of Home Exercises for Teenagers

Summary

This trial will address the impaired quality of life of young people with asthma, despite appropriate medicines. Research shows that young people report needing to calm themselves down during an asthma attack to control their breathing. Although physiotherapist- delivered breathing retraining programmes now have a clear evidence base in adults with asthma, improving quality of life, there is a lack of evidence assessing its use in younger patients. The investigators have redesigned an adult training package to make it appropriate for young people and will now assess how effective such an intervention would be in this population. This study will include young people (12-17 years) with physician diagnosed asthma. The repurposing, optimisation and acceptability of the intervention in the adolescent age group has been undertaken in Stages 1 and 2 of the Breathe 4 Teens (BREATHE4T) project. A self-guided, breathing retraining digital intervention has been developed, delivered via a mobile friendly, online platform.

The current study is a randomised, controlled feasibility trial and will provide the necessary information for a substantive cost-effectiveness trial. Participants with access to the intervention will be compared to a usual care group. Asthma and quality of life of both groups will also be assessed at baseline, 2-month and 6-month time points. At the end of the 6 months, the control group will also be given access to the website.

The online nature of this study allows recruitment from across the United Kingdom. Recruitment methods would include primary care, hospital clinics, social media and posters. AsthmaUK will also provide publicity to assist recruitment.

Conditions

• Adolescent Behavior
• Asthma

Interventions

BEHAVIORAL

Breathe for Teens (Breathe4T)

A digital, self-management intervention for adolescents to control their asthma using breathing retraining. The mobile-friendly website provides information about asthma, how it affects the lungs, and how breathing patterns can be dysfunctional. Information is presented using short (30sec-2min) video clips featuring physiotherapists, researchers and adolescent role models. Users are given tips about their practice, including choosing a suitable time and place and building up gradually. Users can plan and log their practice and record their confidence in using the breathing techniques. There are 8 sessions including peer-led videos demonstrating breathing exercises with voiceovers and step-by-step instructions. All features and sessions can be accessed via a main dashboard where users can tailor the intervention to allow parental involvement, reminders and a preferred format for notifications (email/text). Other features include frequently asked questions (FAQs) and a progress chart.

Sponsors & Collaborators

• University of Bath

  collaborator OTHER

• Aston University

  collaborator OTHER

• University Hospital Southampton NHS Foundation Trust

  collaborator OTHER

• Asthma UK

  collaborator OTHER

• University of Southampton

  lead OTHER

Principal Investigators

• Graham Roberts · University of Southampton

Study Design

Allocation

RANDOMIZED

Purpose

SUPPORTIVE_CARE

Masking

SINGLE

Model

PARALLEL

Eligibility

Min Age

12 Years

Max Age

17 Years

Sex

ALL

Healthy Volunteers

Yes

Timeline & Regulatory

Start

2021-06-22

Primary Completion

2022-06-30

Completion

2022-09-30

Countries

• United Kingdom

Study Locations