Telehealth Pilot for Veterans with Chronic Multi-Symptom Illness.

War Related Illness and Injury Study Center

Status: Completed

Conditions: Chronic Multisymptom Illness

Treatments: Behavioral: Mental and physical (MAP) training intervention

Study type: Interventional

Funder types: Other; Other U.S. Federal agency

Identifiers

NCT04164667

01880

Details and patient eligibility

About

The objective of this pilot study is to examine the feasibility, safety, and acceptability of a telehealth meditation and physical activity (MAP) intervention among Veterans with chronic multi-symptom illness.

Full description

This pilot study innovatively merges with ongoing clinical practice at the War Related Illness and Injury Study Center to explore the utility of new VA technologies and distance-bridging approaches for administering a remote intervention that promotes health behaviors (e.g., physical activity and meditation, called mental and physical training or MAP). Not only does this study intend to examine the feasibility of using these tools within the home setting and integrating these practices into the weekly lives of Veterans, but it also aims to determine the best way to administer this type of intervention by comparing a directed MAP (dMAP) intervention arm to a self-guided MAP (sgMAP) intervention arm. Understanding how much guidance to provide Veterans during their path towards recovery is important since we hope that this pilot study will offer not only evidence that these practices can be administered without supervision but also reveal that giving Veterans the right tools (exercise and meditation app on tablet), guidance (directed text message or holistic goals), and support (video-chat health coaching) can have measurable benefits on symptom severity and function.

Enrollment: 24 patients

Sex: All

Ages: 18+ years old

Volunteers: No Healthy Volunteers

Inclusion criteria

• Previously deployed Veterans
• Experiencing Chronic Multisymptom Illness defined using the Fukuda criteria.
• Able to engage in physical activity
• Has a smart phone
• Co-enrolled in the WRIISC Data Repository Study

Exclusion criteria

• Excessive alcohol consumption (AUDIT Score >= 4 (men); AUDIT Score >= 3 (women))
• Current or previous drug use past 90 days.
• Current prominent suicide or homicidal ideation
• Recent exposure to trauma
• Acute or unstable illness
• Dementia or significant cognitive impairments

Trial design

Primary purpose: Health Services Research

Allocation: Randomized

Interventional model: Parallel Assignment

Masking: None (Open label)

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24 participants in 2 patient groups

Directed MAP (dMAP)

Experimental group

Description:

Participants received weekly text message directions from the ANNIE VA messaging system. The directed text messaging system provided details on which app-based meditation and exercise sessions to complete.

Treatment:

Behavioral: Mental and physical (MAP) training intervention

Self-Guided MAP (sgMAP)

Active Comparator group

Description:

Participants received the intervention goals at the beginning of the study which included instruction on how to perform each of the individual components of the MAP protocol and how to use the study devices/apps, but they did not receive any further guidance during the intervention.

Treatment:

Behavioral: Mental and physical (MAP) training intervention