Clinical Trial
Study Details
This mobile health intervention utilizes an established telephone/text based secure interface to allow AYAs access knowledge, experience, and instrumental/emotional support from a trained peer coach who has already developed independence an active self-manager. Peers with shared experiences provide instrumental (e.g., health maintenance skills) and emotional support that likely lead to improvements in quality of life. Involving peers in supporting AYAs with chronic conditions to promote self-management and patient activation disrupts the typical over-reliance on the parent and health care provider that often impedes developing independence.
Over 12 months the attention control group participants will receive a monthly electronic newsletter with educational content about childhood onset chronic condition management and the differences between pediatric and adult health care systems, as well as a monthly phone call from study staff to ensure receipt of the newsletter and to answer questions regarding content, and an opportunity to link them to other resources. If participants report health concerns they will be directed to contact their health care team.
The purpose of this study is to test the efficacy of a peer support coaching intervention to improve activated chronic illness self-management versus an attention control group in 225 adolescents and young adults with childhood onset chronic conditions.
Study Overview
Increases in life expectancy in almost all childhood-onset chronic conditions (COCC) has brought unique challenges for adolescents and young adults (AYA) who struggle to deal with the associated disease burden, manage therapies, and thrive as they develop independent self-management skills, and become active and engaged patients. The challenges that influence the lives of AYAs are largely adaptive, such as making lifestyle modifications, adhering to complex medication regimens, and learning to navigate the adult health system. Adding to this complexity is the need for AYAs to progressively take over greater self-management responsibilities from parents. Promoting activated self-management is critically important given that this shift in health care management from parents and health care providers to the AYA is identified as key to successful adult outcomes. Peer support interventions are well-suited to address challenges theorized as critical to AYAs given the importance of peer relationships during this time. The investigators propose a mixed-methods, five-year randomized controlled trial, that will include 225 AYAs (16-22 years) with COCCs, to test the Peer i-Coaching for Activated Self-Management Optimization (PICASO) versus an attention control group. This novel, mobile health intervention utilizes an established telephone/text based secure interface to allow AYAs access knowledge, experience, and instrumental/emotional support from a trained peer coach (18-26 years), who has already developed independence and is an active self-manager. The investigators will determine the efficacy of PICASO on self-management, patient activation, transition readiness, health-related quality, and emotional health of life across 12 months. The investigators will explore whether age, sex, race/ethnicity, chronic condition, and/or disease severity moderate the trajectory of PICASO effects on self-management, patient activation, coping, emotional health and health-related quality of life. Lastly, the investigators will explore mechanisms of the PICASO impact by describing AYA experiences with the intervention.
Contacts and Locations
Duke University
Durham, North Carolina 27710
United States