Interventions To Help Asthma Clinical Adherence (ITHACA)

University of California San Francisco (UCSF)

Status: Completed

Conditions: Child; Humans; Asthma in Children; Hispanic Americans

Treatments: Device: SmartInhaler; Device: SmartInhaler with reminder function turned on

Study type: Interventional

Funder types: Other; Industry

Identifiers

NCT02999789

15-16445

Details and patient eligibility

About

To conduct a pilot test to estimate the effect of a novel reminder system in improving daily asthma controller medication adherence rates in children with monolingual Spanish-speaking guardians who have limited English Proficiency (LEP).

Full description

The primary hypothesis is to conduct a pilot test to estimate the effect of the SmartInhaler device in improving daily asthma controller medication adherence rates in children with monolingual Spanish- speaking guardians who have LEP during a six-week intervention period when compared to baseline medication adherence rates in a preceding six-week run-in period. The secondary hypothesis is to determine whether the patient reminder system can improve asthma symptom control during the same six-week intervention period. The third hypothesis is to assess if there are specific, patient behavior characteristics which are associated with the success of a novel asthma medication reminder system.

Enrollment: 13 patients

Sex: All

Ages: 5 to 17 years old

Volunteers: Accepts Healthy Volunteers

Inclusion criteria

1. The investigators will recruit 30 participants ages 5 to 17 years with a diagnosis of persistent asthma who require a daily inhaled corticosteroid metered dose inhaler and whose guardian is the person responsible for administering their daily asthma medication.
2. The investigators will recruit only participants who have received or receive care at San Francisco General Hospital's 6M Children's Health Center.
3. The investigators will recruit participants whose daily inhaled corticosteroid are metered dose inhalers (MDI) of either Flovent (fluticasone propionate) HFA (Hydrofluoroalkane) or Qvar (beclamethasone dipropionate) HFA.
4. The Investigators will recruit only participants whose guardian responsible for administering their daily asthma medication has Limited English Proficiency (LEP) and whose primary language is Spanish.

Exclusion criteria

1. The Investigators will exclude participants whose guardian responsible for administering their daily asthma medication does not have a Bluetooth enabled cell phone capable of receiving text messages.
2. The Investigators will exclude participants whose guardian responsible for administering their daily asthma medication does not have an available reliable power outlet where they can recharge the battery of their SmartInhaler.
3. The Investigators will exclude participants whose guardian responsible for administering their daily asthma medication is unable to demonstrate correct medication technique based on standard evaluation (Press, 2011) after completion of a standard teaching protocol.
4. The Investigators will exclude participants with chronic lung disease.
5. The Investigators will exclude participants who do not have an operating system of iOS or Android on their cell phone and who have no data plan with their cellular phone plan.
6. The Investigators will exclude participants whose asthma medication regimen is being managed by an asthma subspecialist or health provider outside of the 6M Children's Health Center at San Francisco General Hospital.
7. The Investigators will exclude participants who are using an inhaled long acting beta-agonist (LABA) as part of their asthma management plan.

Trial design

Primary purpose: Health Services Research

Allocation: Randomized

Interventional model: Parallel Assignment

Masking: None (Open label)

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13 participants in 2 patient groups, including a placebo group

Intervention: Reminder System

Active Comparator group

Description:

After an initial six week run-in period, participants will be randomized to either the intervention group or placebo group. The intervention group will have SMS reminder and audiovisual reminder functions turned on. SMS reminders will be sent twice daily to child's caregiver's cell phone reminding them to administer daily asthma medication. SmartInhaler with reminder function turned on that is attached to Inhaler medication will remind child's caregiver twice daily to administer daily asthma medication.

Treatment:

Device: SmartInhaler with reminder function turned on

Placebo: Delayed Reminder System

Placebo Comparator group

Description:

After an initial six week run-in period, participants will be randomized to either the intervention group or placebo group. The placebo group will have SMS reminder and audiovisual reminder functions turned off. The SmartInhaler will only function to measure daily adherence. Once intervention group has finished their 6 week period, this group will have intervention turned on.

Treatment:

Device: SmartInhaler