The Social Needs Assistance for Hospitalized Kids Trial

Summary

The goal of this clinical trial is to determine the best way to help families access social and economic support services in order to improve children's health for hospitalized children and their families/caregivers.

The main question it aims to answer is, does providing active assistance from navigators to connect families to social/economic resources lead to greater improvements in child global health compared to providing passive referrals to resources among hospitalized children?

All families will receive a tailored information sheet with referrals to community resources to address their social/economic needs and an introduction to how to search for resources using an online program. Researchers will compare families who receive these resources with families who also receive support from trained navigators, people with knowledge about local resources trained to connect families with resources. The study will examine whether the addition of navigator support improves families' access to services and children's health outcomes.

Conditions

• Social Needs
• Health-Related Social Needs
• Social Determinants of Health (SDOH)
• Social Needs Status
• Conditions Influencing Health Status
• Navigation

Interventions

OTHER

Active Assistance by Navigators

Participants will receive the same resources as in the passive referral group as well as support from navigators for up to 3 months after enrollment. Navigators will review resources with caregivers, assist with completion of intake applications when applicable, and provide support related to accessing social services.

OTHER

Passive Referral

Participants in this group will receive a list of local resources to address social needs based on the social risks for which they screen positive and where they live. Research staff will use Findhelp, an online platform that helps identify social resources (e.g., food assistance, housing support) based on zip code, to inform creation of the lists. In addition, families will receive a brief introduction on how to access and use Findhelp.

Sponsors & Collaborators

• Patient-Centered Outcomes Research Institute

  collaborator OTHER

• The University of Texas Health Science Center, Houston

  collaborator OTHER

• Baylor University

  collaborator OTHER

• Children's Hospital of Philadelphia

  collaborator OTHER

• University of California, San Francisco

  lead OTHER

Principal Investigators

• Matthew S Pantell, MD, MS · University of California, San Francisco

Study Design

Allocation

RANDOMIZED

Purpose

HEALTH_SERVICES_RESEARCH

Masking

DOUBLE

Model

PARALLEL

Eligibility

Sex

ALL

Healthy Volunteers

No

Timeline & Regulatory

Start

2026-09-30

Primary Completion

2030-09-30

Completion

2030-09-30

Countries

• United States

Study Locations