Using Social Media to Decrease Healthcare Utilization for Pediatric Asthma

Summary

The purpose of this study is to evaluate if social media enhanced education (SME) will reduce total number of treatment days defined as summation of days of subsequent hospital admission, emergency room visits, and clinic visits, reduce missed school days, reduce total costs from a health system perspective, have increased effect with increased social media engagement, have increased effect in participants with both caregiver and patient (combined) with social media accounts, compared to participants where only the patient or only the caregiver uses social media (single),have increased patient satisfaction in the asthma education received and to obtain the experience and data needed to refine SME to be able to expand this platform for other chronic medical conditions with high healthcare utilization including pediatric diabetes, epilepsy, and sickle cell disease in children with asthma.

Conditions

• Asthma in Children

Interventions

OTHER

Social Media Enhanced Education

Along with usual asthma education received,participants will receive asthma education via various social media platforms ,Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, and/or Snapchat. Topics of education will include background on asthma and pathophysiology, asthma severity classification, asthma triggers, different medications and indications for when to take them, how to use an inhaler technique, and symptom monitoring.Online resources from the American Lung Association and the National Asthma Education and Prevention Program will also be posted.

OTHER

Usual Asthma Education

For patients who are admitted to Children's Memorial Hermann for asthma exacerbation, asthma education is provided to patients and families on the day of discharge by the nurse and respiratory therapist on triggers, Signs \& Symptoms, Medication Use, Medication Delivery, Peak Flow, Zones and how to respond to each, and Cleaning equipment.Nursing staff are responsible for printing out education sheets to give to patients and showing an education video that is 20 minutes long. An asthma action plan are given to families on discharge. Patients that are discharged from the emergency room are given the same educational materials by the nurses and/or respiratory therapists except for the asthma video. Patients receive a variable amount of asthma education when going to usual clinic visits. The education provided is dependent on the provider, and usually limited in length to the time of the visit

Sponsors & Collaborators

• National Center for Advancing Translational Sciences (NCATS)

  collaborator NIH

• The University of Texas Health Science Center, Houston

  lead OTHER

Principal Investigators

• Monica Kodakandla, MD · The University of Texas Health Science Center, Houston

Study Design

Allocation

RANDOMIZED

Purpose

OTHER

Masking

SINGLE

Model

PARALLEL

Eligibility

Min Age

3 Years

Max Age

17 Years

Sex

ALL

Healthy Volunteers

No

Timeline & Regulatory

Start

2021-10-01

Primary Completion

2024-09-15

Completion

2024-09-15

Countries

• United States

Study Locations