Testing a Measurement Feedback App to Improve Data Quality, Supervision & Outcomes in Behavioral Health (Footsteps)

University of Pennsylvania

Status: Not yet enrolling

Conditions: Oppositional Defiant Disorder; Challenging Behavior; ADHD; Autism

Treatments: Device: Electronic platform; Behavioral: Behavioral economics strategies

Study type: Interventional

Funder types: Other; NIH

Identifiers

NCT07042347

855228

R01MH136153 (U.S. NIH Grant/Contract)

Details and patient eligibility

About

The goal of this clinical trial is to test whether a smartphone-based data collection and feedback application ("Footsteps") improves the quality of behavioral data collected by one-to-one aides and leads to better youth mental health outcomes in school-aged youth (ages 4-17) who receive one-to-one support in schools.

The main questions it aims to answer are:

1. Does the Footsteps app improve aides' data collection quality (i.e., consistency, timeliness, and completeness)?
2. Does Footsteps use lead to improved youth behavioral health outcomes (e.g., SDQ, YTP, GAS scores)?
3. Does Footsteps improve communication and supervision processes between aides and clinical supervisors?

Researchers will compare aides using Footsteps to those using a "data collection only" control app to see if Footsteps leads to higher quality data collection, enhanced supervisory communication, and better youth outcomes.

Participants will:

• Use either Footsteps or a control app to record de-identified data on one client's behaviors and skills over 12 weeks
• Complete biweekly online surveys about data collection experiences, youth progress, and aide-supervisor communication
• Participate in a virtual intake and post-trial meeting
• (For a subset) Participate in a 30-45 minute qualitative interview about their experience using the app

Enrollment: 200 estimated patients

Sex: All

Ages: 18+ years old

Volunteers: Accepts Healthy Volunteers

Inclusion criteria

• Aides must be employed by a community behavior health agency in Philadelphia or one of its surrounding counties
• and be working with at least one client in school who meets the following criteria: 1) between 4-17 years, 2) has a diagnosis associated with a challenging behavior (e.g., autism spectrum disorder, attention deficit hyperactivity disorder, oppositional defiant disorder) as indicated on their treatment plan, and 3) receiving 1:1 aide support.
• Supervisors must be employed by a community behavior health agency and supervise a participating aide. The investigators will recruit supervisors in dyads and not triads (i.e., no supervisors with two [or more] aides) to ensure there are 30 supervisor-aide dyads in total).

Exclusion criteria

• Aides who participated in the pilot trial of the Footsteps will be excluded from participating to recruit a sample naïve to Footsteps and the control app.

Trial design

Primary purpose: Treatment

Allocation: Randomized

Interventional model: Parallel Assignment

Masking: None (Open label)

---

200 participants in 2 patient groups

Footsteps (Enhancements)

Experimental group

Description:

An electronic platform for data collection ("Footsteps") that contains additional features designed to increase motivation to collect data and ease of data collection.

Treatment:

Behavioral: Behavioral economics strategies

Device: Electronic platform

Data Collection Only App (No Enhancements)

Active Comparator group

Description:

A basic electronic platform for data collection.

Treatment:

Device: Electronic platform