Self-Management Using Text Messaging in a Homeless Population

May 1, 2019 updated by: Donald Keith McInnes, Boston University

Improving Self-Management of Chronic Conditions Among Homeless Persons: a Community-Based Participatory Approach Using Text Messaging

The purpose of this study is to determine if an automated text message intervention is beneficial for homeless patients in reducing their hospital visits, increasing their primary care appointments, and help them increase medication adherence.

Study Overview

Status

Status

Indicates the current recruitment status or the expanded access status.
Completed

Conditions

Conditions

The disease, disorder, syndrome, illness, or injury that is being studied. On ClinicalTrials.gov, conditions may also include other health-related issues, such as lifespan, quality of life, and health risks.

Intervention / Treatment

Intervention / Treatment

A process or action that is the focus of a clinical study. Interventions include drugs, medical devices, procedures, vaccines, and other products that are either investigational or already available. Interventions can also include noninvasive approaches, such as education or modifying diet and exercise.

Detailed Description

Boston Healthcare for the Homeless Program (BHCHP) is the study site for this research. It is the largest freestanding health care for the homeless program in the country - it provides primary care, behavioral health, oral health care and other wrap-around services to 12,500 homeless individuals a year. BHCHP was recently awarded a two-year grant from the Massachusetts Health Policy Commission to demonstrate how intensive, coordinated case management can reduce costs of caring for homeless persons who are high utilizers of emergency department (ED) and inpatient care. The Social Determinants of Health Coordinated Care Hub for Homeless Adults project (hereafter the "Care Hub") will create capacity among 9 Boston organizations serving homeless residents to meet their needs in primary care, behavioral health, housing, and shelter. This will improve quality of life, health outcomes, and care efficiency for the organizations. The participating organizations, in addition to BHCHP, are Bay Cove Human Services, Boston Public Health Commission, Boston Rescue Mission, Casa Esperanza, Massachusetts Housing and Shelter Alliance, The New England Center and Home for Veterans, St. Francis House, Victory Programs Specifically the investigators anticipate that patients participating in the Care Hub will have reduced use of ED and inpatient care because they will be better linked to and retained in appropriate care such as outpatient, mental health, substance use disorder (SUD), preventive care, and respite care. Regular care will increase the appropriate management of chronic health conditions and reduce episodes of exacerbations of these conditions which often lead to ED and hospital care. The purpose of this study is to evaluate whether an a text messaging system of appointment reminders, along with medication taking messages, and text messages about mood will augment the effectiveness of the Care Hub program.

The investigators propose to pilot a cell phone-based outpatient care support and medication reminder system. The content will include appointment reminders and educational and motivational messages about the importance of going to all outpatient care visits and of taking medications. The investigators take a community-based participatory research approach to this study - both because it appropriately considers the needs of the target population (increasing the likelihood of success) and because it empowers a population that is often treated as if its members were powerless. The cell phone texting intervention will help patients stay engaged in care, adhere to their medications, and adopt and sustain behavior change. This will be accomplished by completing a series of objectives:

  1. To develop a text messaging system designed for homeless patients which includes appointment reminders, medication taking reminders and motivation, and texts messages that allow participants to report their mood, all in support of chronic disease management. The system will be based on a health coaching model, and message content will be reviewed and edited by patients who are members of drafted by patient members of a BHCHP Community Innovation Panel (CIP).
  2. To train Care Hub intervention patients (or refresh existing skills) in cell phone text messaging.
  3. To test the text messaging system in a randomized pilot study with 60 patients, comparing outpatient, respite care, ED, and inpatient utilization, and Health-Related Quality of Care (HRQOL) between the 30 intervention and 30 control patients.

Study Type

Study Type

Describes the nature of a clinical study. Study types include interventional studies (also called clinical trials), observational studies (including patient registries), and expanded access.
Interventional

Enrollment (Actual)

Enrollment

The number of participants in a clinical study. The "anticipated" enrollment is the target number of participants that the researchers need for the study.
64

Phase

Phase

The stage of a clinical trial studying a drug or biological product, based on definitions developed by the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA). The phase is based on the study's objective, the number of participants, and other characteristics. There are five phases: Early Phase 1 (formerly listed as Phase 0), Phase 1, Phase 2, Phase 3, and Phase 4. Not Applicable is used to describe trials without FDA-defined phases, including trials of devices or behavioral interventions.
  • Not Applicable

Contacts and Locations

This section provides the contact details for those conducting the study, and information on where this study is being conducted.

Study Locations

  • United States
    • Massachusetts
      • Boston, Massachusetts, United States, 02118
        • Boston University School of Public Health

Participation Criteria

Researchers look for people who fit a certain description, called eligibility criteria. Some examples of these criteria are a person's general health condition or prior treatments.

Eligibility Criteria

Eligibility Criteria

The key requirements that people who want to participate in a clinical study must meet or the characteristics they must have. Eligibility criteria consist of both inclusion criteria (which are required for a person to participate in the study) and exclusion criteria (which prevent a person from participating). Types of eligibility criteria include whether a study accepts healthy volunteers, has age or age group requirements, or is limited by sex.

Ages Eligible for Study

18 years and older (Adult, Older Adult)

Accepts Healthy Volunteers

No

Genders Eligible for Study

All

Description

Inclusion Criteria:

  • is a patient participant in the Coordinated Care Hub Initiative
  • is willing to receive text messages
  • is able to understand English - spoken and read

Exclusion Criteria:

  • has an inability to find, open, and respond to a test text message

Study Plan

This section provides details of the study plan, including how the study is designed and what the study is measuring.

How is the study designed?

Design Details

  • Primary Purpose: Health Services Research
  • Allocation: Randomized
  • Interventional Model: Parallel Assignment
  • Masking: None (Open Label)

Arms and Interventions

Participant Group / Arm

Participant Group / Arm

A group or subgroup of participants in a clinical trial that receives a specific intervention/treatment, or no intervention, according to the trial's protocol.
Intervention / Treatment

Intervention / Treatment

A process or action that is the focus of a clinical study. Interventions include drugs, medical devices, procedures, vaccines, and other products that are either investigational or already available. Interventions can also include noninvasive approaches, such as education or modifying diet and exercise.
Experimental: Text Messaging
This group will receive text messages with appointment reminders, medication taking education and motivation, and for reporting of mood.
Behavioral: Text Messaging
Subjects will receive text messages with reminders of their upcoming outpatient health care appointments at the Boston Health Care for the Homeless Program (BHCHP) clinic. The text message will indicate the time of the appointment and the location (e.g. "Remember appointment Friday March 15 at 10am in the Yawkey building"). Appointment reminder text messages will be sent 3 days ahead and again 1 day ahead of the appointment date. Medication related texts will be sent every other day and will be educational and motivational (e.g. "Keep taking medications that way the doctor prescribed them, even if feeling fine"). Mood related texts will also be sent every other day and ask about mood on a 1 to 5 scale. The participant will text back a response.
Placebo Comparator: Control
This group will receive simple text messages about general health promotion, such as about the importance of drinking water on hot days, using sunscreen, etc.
Behavioral: Text Messaging
Subjects will receive text messages with reminders of their upcoming outpatient health care appointments at the Boston Health Care for the Homeless Program (BHCHP) clinic. The text message will indicate the time of the appointment and the location (e.g. "Remember appointment Friday March 15 at 10am in the Yawkey building"). Appointment reminder text messages will be sent 3 days ahead and again 1 day ahead of the appointment date. Medication related texts will be sent every other day and will be educational and motivational (e.g. "Keep taking medications that way the doctor prescribed them, even if feeling fine"). Mood related texts will also be sent every other day and ask about mood on a 1 to 5 scale. The participant will text back a response.

What is the study measuring?

Primary Outcome Measures

Primary Outcome Measures

In a clinical study's protocol, the planned outcome measure that is the most important for evaluating the effect of an intervention/treatment. Most clinical studies have one primary outcome measure, but some have more than one.
Outcome Measure
Measure Description
Time Frame
Emergency Department Visits Made
Time Frame: 4 months
Data from BHCHP's electronic medical record (EMR) and from the Coordinated Care Hub electronic case management system in use by the Care Hub organizations, which includes admission and discharge data
4 months

Secondary Outcome Measures

Secondary Outcome Measures

In a clinical study's protocol, a planned outcome measure that is not as important as the primary outcome measure for evaluating the effect of an intervention but is still of interest. Most clinical studies have more than one secondary outcome measure.
Outcome Measure
Measure Description
Time Frame
Inpatient admissions
Time Frame: 4 months
Similar to Emergency Department visit data, this will come from BHCHP's EMR and from the electronic case management system
4 months
Appointment keeping
Time Frame: 4 months
Ratio of kept appointments to all appointments scheduled, based on the BHCHP EMR (e.g. 0-100%).
4 months
Medication Adherence
Time Frame: 4 months
Self report medication adherence is assessed with 2 measures: Morisky adherence scale, (range, 0=poor to 11=excellent) and a 1-item rating question in which patients rate their ability to take all their medications as prescribed (range, 1=very poor to 6=excellent)
4 months
Adult Well-Being Assessment
Time Frame: 4 months
This 9-item health-related quality of life (HRQOL) assessment is a validated measure developed by the Institute for Healthcare Improvement.
4 months
Comfort with Computers and Cell Phones
Time Frame: 4 months
The eHealth Literacy Scale, eHEALS, (range 8-40, higher equals greater self-efficacy) assesses comfort with computers and the Internet for health related purposes. Investigators will also adapt eHEALS so that separate items can be asked about comfort with cell phone use.
4 months
Frequency of Cell Phone Use and Computer Use
Time Frame: 4 months
Measures come from the Health Information National Trends Survey (HINTS). Scale ranges from 0 (no use) to 12 (frequent use of many features).
4 months
Outpatient appointments
Time Frame: 4 months
Number of outpatient visits made
4 months

Collaborators and Investigators

This is where you will find people and organizations involved with this study.

Sponsor

Sponsor

The organization or person who initiates the study and who has authority and control over the study.
Boston University

Collaborators

Collaborators

An organization other than the sponsor that provides support for a clinical study. This support may include activities related to funding, design, implementation, data analysis, or reporting.
Boston Health Care for the Homeless Program

Investigators

Investigators

A researcher involved in a clinical study. Related terms include site principal investigator, site sub-investigator, study chair, study director, and study principal investigator.
  • Principal Investigator: Donald K McInnes, ScD, Boston University and Department of Veterans Affairs

Publications and helpful links

The person responsible for entering information about the study voluntarily provides these publications. These may be about anything related to the study.

General Publications

Study record dates

These dates track the progress of study record and summary results submissions to ClinicalTrials.gov. Study records and reported results are reviewed by the National Library of Medicine (NLM) to make sure they meet specific quality control standards before being posted on the public website.

Study Major Dates

Study Start (Actual)

Study Start

The actual date on which the first participant was enrolled in a clinical study. The "anticipated" study start date is the date that the researchers think will be the study start date.
July 21, 2017

Primary Completion (Actual)

Primary Completion

The date on which the last participant in a clinical study was examined or received an intervention to collect final data for the primary outcome measure. Whether the clinical study ended according to the protocol or was terminated does not affect this date. For clinical studies with more than one primary outcome measure with different completion dates, this term refers to the date on which data collection is completed for all the primary outcome measures. The "anticipated" primary completion date is the date that the researchers think will be the primary completion date for the study.
December 30, 2018

Study Completion (Actual)

Study Completion

The date on which the last participant in a clinical study was examined or received an intervention/treatment to collect final data for the primary outcome measures, secondary outcome measures, and adverse events (that is, the last participant's last visit). The "anticipated" study completion date is the date that the researchers think will be the study completion date.
April 30, 2019

Study Registration Dates

First Submitted

First Submitted

The date on which the study sponsor or investigator first submitted a study record to ClinicalTrials.gov. There is typically a delay of a few days between the first submitted date and the record's availability on ClinicalTrials.gov (the first posted date).
January 26, 2017

First Submitted That Met QC Criteria

First Submitted That Met QC Criteria

The date on which the study sponsor or investigator first submits a study record that is consistent with National Library of Medicine (NLM) quality control (QC) review criteria. The sponsor or investigator may need to revise and submit a study record one or more times before NLM's QC review criteria are met. It is the responsibility of the sponsor or investigator to ensure that the study record is consistent with the NLM QC review criteria.
January 26, 2017

First Posted (Estimate)

First Posted

The date on which the study record was first available on ClinicalTrials.gov after National Library of Medicine (NLM) quality control (QC) review has concluded. There is typically a delay of a few days between the date the study sponsor or investigator submitted the study record and the first posted date.
January 27, 2017

Study Record Updates

Last Update Posted (Actual)

Last Update Posted

The most recent date on which changes to a study record were made available on ClinicalTrials.gov. There may be a delay between when the changes were submitted to ClinicalTrials.gov by the study's sponsor or investigator (the last update submitted date) and the last update posted date.
May 3, 2019

Last Update Submitted That Met QC Criteria

Last Update Submitted That Met QC Criteria

The most recent date on which the study sponsor or investigator submitted changes to a study record that are consistent with National Library of Medicine (NLM) quality control (QC) review criteria. It is the responsibility of the sponsor or investigator to ensure that the study record is consistent with the NLM QC review criteria.
May 1, 2019

Last Verified

Last Verified

The most recent date on which the study sponsor or investigator confirmed the information about a clinical study on ClinicalTrials.gov as accurate and current. If a study with a recruitment status of recruiting; not yet recruiting; or active, not recruiting has not been confirmed within the past 2 years, the study's recruitment status is shown as unknown.
May 1, 2019

More Information

Terms related to this study

Keywords

Additional Relevant MeSH Terms

Other Study ID Numbers

Other Study ID Numbers

Identifiers or ID numbers other than the NCT number that are assigned to a clinical study by the study's sponsor, funders, or others. These numbers may include unique identifiers from other trial registries and National Institutes of Health grant numbers.
  • H-35967
  • catalyst grant (Other Identifier: BU SPH)

Plan for Individual participant data (IPD)

Plan to Share Individual Participant Data (IPD)?

No

Drug and device information, study documents

Studies a U.S. FDA-regulated drug product

No

Studies a U.S. FDA-regulated device product

No

This information was retrieved directly from the website clinicaltrials.gov without any changes. If you have any requests to change, remove or update your study details, please contact register@clinicaltrials.gov. As soon as a change is implemented on clinicaltrials.gov, this will be updated automatically on our website as well.

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