mHealth for Self-care of Heart Failure in Uganda

December 5, 2022 updated by: Yale University

An Accessible, Scalable, Patient-facing mHealth Application for Self-care of Heart Failure in LMIC

Heart failure affects more than 38 million people globally. It is responsible for high rates of hospitalization and premature mortality, especially in sub-Saharan Africa. Heart failure causes multiple debilitating and distressing symptoms. These symptoms can often be managed by patients themselves but only when they are able to identify symptoms and select appropriate actions. Self-care, a World Health Organization-endorsed intervention for chronic conditions like heart failure, is greatly underutilized in lower and middle income countries, including Uganda. Self-care refers to the ability of patients, caregivers and communities to maintain health, prevent disease, and manage illness, with or without a healthcare provider. Mobile health (mHealth) offers a promising platform to address this need gap in lower and middle income countries. mHealth takes advantage of the widespread usage of mobile phones to offer patients individualized self-care tools such as education, healthy lifestyle prompts, and support with making decisions. Since 2016, this multidisciplinary, international research team has been designing Medly Uganda, an mHealth application to improve self-care among Ugandan patients with heart failure. This application began as a smartphone but was adapted for the low-cost feature phones used widely throughout the country. It was also integrated into an mHealth system endorsed by the Ugandan Ministry of Health. When patients log in they are prompted to report on specific heart failure symptoms. The application then generates self-care instructions based on those symptoms. If a patient reports serious symptoms the application triggers an alert to the research nurse, who then consults with the patient, caregiver, and if needed, cardiologist, to establish a plan of care. This study proposes that an mHealth intervention tailored specifically to the local context will improve healthcare quality of life for patients with heart failure. The research team hypothesizes that heart failure patients who use the program will report improved scores on the Self-Care in Heart Failure Index. These scores will be assessed at baseline, three-month, and six-month visits. The researchers will also measure changes in patients' clinical conditions, including the 6-minute walk test, left ventricular ejection fraction, and frequency of acute care visits. Finally, the researchers will conduct qualitative interviews with patients and providers to understand their experiences.

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

Participants will be asked to initiate self-care sessions using the Medly Uganda application. They will dial the sub-code and enter a unique PIN to access the system. They are asked to do this every Monday, Wednesday, and Friday morning for six months, as well as anytime that they experience concerning symptoms. If a participant has not initiated a session by 11:00am on the designated days, the application will generate an SMS reminder. Each interactive session will present a series of symptom-based questions to the participant. These questions will be followed by a tailored SMS message. While session content will not remain on the participant's phone, the SMS messages will. This allows participants to retain and review messages, thereby reinforcing educational content. There are four status categories: Stable, Fluid Overload, Urgent, and Critical. If Stable, participants will be sent one of six encouraging and educational messages. If Fluid Overload, Urgent or Critical, patient participants will be sent a message that identifies the symptom and recommends an action and the on-duty nurse will be sent an accompanying alert. Urgent and Critical alerts will also be sent to the on-duty doctor. The nurse is expected to call the patient for Urgent and Critical alerts within 60 and 15 minutes, respectively. Nurse phone call interactions will be guided by a standard operating manual. One nurse and one doctor will be designated rotating 'on-duty' responsibility to monitor clinician alerts and the dashboard seven days a week. The doctor will be available to provide clinical supervision to the nurse as needed and they will have a daily in-person or by-phone.

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.
72

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

  • Uganda
      • Kampala, Uganda
        • Uganda Heart Institute

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 to 99 years (Adult, Older Adult)

Accepts Healthy Volunteers

No

Genders Eligible for Study

All

Description

Inclusion Criteria:

  • UHI patient presenting for routine or urgent outpatient visit
  • Currently living in Uganda and not planning to travel abroad for six months
  • Age >=18 years
  • Symptomatic heart failure (New York Heart Association Class II or III and left ventricular ejection fraction of 45% or less)
  • Access to a mobile phone
  • Basic reading skills in English, Luganda, and/or Runyankole

Exclusion Criteria:

  • Life expectancy < six months
  • Active medical condition requiring hospitalization, such as cardiac ischemia (acute electrocardiographic changes and/or positive biomarkers, if available), syncope, or significant fluid overload
  • Pregnancy
  • Inability to provide informed consent.

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: Treatment
  • Allocation: N/A
  • Interventional Model: Single Group 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.
Other: mHealth
Heart failure patients enrolled in the mHealth program
Other: mHealth for heart failure patients in Uganda
Patients at Uganda Heart Institute will be enrolled in an mHealth program intended to promote self-care for heart failure and improve their healthcare quality of life.

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
Self-Care for Heart Failure Index, Maintenance
Time Frame: Baseline and Six-month follow-up
The Self-care of Heart Failure Index (SCHFI) is a measure of self-care defined as a naturalistic decision-making process involving the choice of behaviors that maintain physiological stability (maintenance), the response to symptoms when they occur (management), and confidence in self-care (confidence). The self-care maintenance subscale includes 10 items asking how often patients check their heart failure symptoms and treatment adherence. The score is standardized to a 0- to 100-point range: raw score sum minus lowest possible raw scale score, then divided by the possible range of scores, and finally multiplied by 100. Higher score for each scale indicates better self-maintenance.
Baseline and Six-month follow-up
Self-Care for Heart Failure Index, Management
Time Frame: Baseline and Six-month follow-up
The Self-care of Heart Failure Index (SCHFI) is a measure of self-care defined as a naturalistic decision-making process involving the choice of behaviors that maintain physiological stability (maintenance), the response to symptoms when they occur (management), and confidence in self-care (confidence). The self-care management subscale includes 6 items if patients report any heart failure symptoms in the past month. Then based on the responses on how quick they recognize it as a symptom of heart failure and remedies they tried, the score is standardized to a 0- to 100-point range: raw score sum minus lowest possible raw scale score, then divided by the possible range of scores, and finally multiplied by 100. Higher score for each scale indicates better self-management.
Baseline and Six-month follow-up
Self-Care for Heart Failure Index, Confidence
Time Frame: Baseline and Six-month follow-up
The Self-care of Heart Failure Index (SCHFI) is a measure of self-care defined as a naturalistic decision-making process involving the choice of behaviors that maintain physiological stability (maintenance), the response to symptoms when they occur (management), and confidence in self-care (confidence). The self-care confidence subscale includes 6 items asking how confident that they can keep themselves free of symptoms, follow treatment advice, recognize changes in their health and etc.. The score is standardized to a 0- to 100-point range: raw score sum minus lowest possible raw scale score, then divided by the possible range of scores, and finally multiplied by 100. Higher score for each scale indicates better self-confidence
Baseline and Six-month follow-up

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
EQ-5D-5L, Mobility
Time Frame: Baseline and Six-month follow-up visit
Measure Description: Healthcare quality of life will be measured using the 5-level EQ-5D version (EQ-5D-5L). It is a validated instrument appropriate for use in lower and middle income countries. Each of the five dimensions (mobility, self-care, usual activities, pain/discomfort, and anxiety/depression) comprises the EQ-5D descriptive system. We regrouped the 5 levels of perceived problems into binary responses as "no problem" (Level 1), or "Having problems" (Level 2-5).
Baseline and Six-month follow-up visit
EQ-5D-5L, Self-Care
Time Frame: Baseline and Six-month follow-up visit
Measure Description: Healthcare quality of life will be measured using the 5-level EQ-5D version (EQ-5D-5L). It is a validated instrument appropriate for use in lower and middle income countries. Each of the five dimensions (mobility, self-care, usual activities, pain/discomfort, and anxiety/depression) comprises the EQ-5D descriptive system. We regrouped the 5 levels of perceived problems into binary responses as "no problem" (Level 1), or "Having problems" (Level 2-5).
Baseline and Six-month follow-up visit
EQ-5D-5L, Usual Activities
Time Frame: Baseline and Six-month follow-up visit
Measure Description: Healthcare quality of life will be measured using the 5-level EQ-5D version (EQ-5D-5L). It is a validated instrument appropriate for use in lower and middle income countries. Each of the five dimensions (mobility, self-care, usual activities, pain/discomfort, and anxiety/depression) comprises the EQ-5D descriptive system. We regrouped the 5 levels of perceived problems into binary responses as "no problem" (Level 1), or "Having problems" (Level 2-5).
Baseline and Six-month follow-up visit
EQ-5D-5L, Pain or Discomfort
Time Frame: Baseline and Six-month follow-up visit
Measure Description: Healthcare quality of life will be measured using the 5-level EQ-5D version (EQ-5D-5L). It is a validated instrument appropriate for use in lower and middle income countries. Each of the five dimensions (mobility, self-care, usual activities, pain/discomfort, and anxiety/depression) comprises the EQ-5D descriptive system. We regrouped the 5 levels of perceived problems into binary responses as "no problem" (Level 1), or "Having problems" (Level 2-5).
Baseline and Six-month follow-up visit
EQ-5D-5L, Anxiety or Depression
Time Frame: Baseline and Six-month follow-up visit
Measure Description: Healthcare quality of life will be measured using the 5-level EQ-5D version (EQ-5D-5L). It is a validated instrument appropriate for use in lower and middle income countries. Each of the five dimensions (mobility, self-care, usual activities, pain/discomfort, and anxiety/depression) comprises the EQ-5D descriptive system. We regrouped the 5 levels of perceived problems into binary responses as "no problem" (Level 1), or "Having problems" (Level 2-5).
Baseline and Six-month follow-up visit
EQ-5D-5L, VAS
Time Frame: Baseline and Six-month follow-up visit
The EQ VAS records the patient's self-rated health on a vertical visual analogue scale, where the 100 indicates 'The best health you can imagine' and 0 means 'The worst health you can imagine'.
Baseline and Six-month follow-up visit
Six-Minute Walk Test, Total Distance
Time Frame: Baseline and Six-month follow-up visit
Patients' functional capacity will be assessed using the Six-Minute Walk Test, a widely-used, reproducible exercise test that serves as a strong predictor of morbidity and mortality in heart failure patients. Outcome is measured as a distance in meters. Possible range is 0-700m. Healthy range is considered 400-700m but may not be normative for all populations, including people with chronic diseases. In this study difference in distance (meters) will be examined across visits, with a lower score reflecting worse function.
Baseline and Six-month follow-up visit
Left Ventricular Ejection Fraction
Time Frame: Baseline and Six-month follow-up visit
Left ventricular ejection fraction (LVEF) is a widely-recognized clinical prognostic marker for heart failure patients. It is measured as a percentage. Possible range is 0-100. Low is <50%. High is >=50%. LVEF is measured by echocardiogram using Simpson biplane formula
Baseline and Six-month follow-up visit
Frequency of Acute Care Visits
Time Frame: Baseline and Six-month follow-up visit
Patients will be asked to report how often they required acute care for their heart failure outside of their usual care. This outcome is the frequency of acute care visits as categorical variable: 0, 1 and ≥2. Possible range is 0-31.
Baseline and Six-month follow-up visit

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.
Yale 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.
University Health Network, Toronto
Fogarty International Center of the National Institute of Health
Makerere University
Uganda Heart Institute

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: Jeremy Schwartz, MD, Yale University
  • Principal Investigator: Isaac Ssinabulya, MMed, Uganda Heart Institute

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.
October 19, 2020

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.
September 6, 2021

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.
September 6, 2021

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).
June 8, 2020

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.
June 8, 2020

First Posted (Actual)

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.
June 11, 2020

Study Record Updates

Last Update Posted (Estimate)

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.
December 7, 2022

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.
December 5, 2022

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.
December 1, 2022

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.
  • 2000025338
  • 1R21TW010998-01A1 (U.S. NIH Grant/Contract)

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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