Social Media And Risk-reduction Training for Infant Care Practices (SMART) (SMART)

The goal of this proposal is to address serious and ongoing challenges related to adherence to public health recommendations known to reduce the risk of SIDS. Adherence has reached a plateau at an unacceptably low level both in the overall US population and especially in Black infants leading to a halt in the decline in infant mortality and a widening in the racial disparity in infant mortality. The current proposal is a collaborative effort that will capitalize on the extensive experience of the investigators in studying barriers to adherence to safe sleep practices to develop two complementary, culturally competent, intervention strategies and to test the effectiveness of each strategy as well as both strategies in combination. Innovative aspects of the Social Media and Risk-reduction Training of Infant Care Practices (SMART) study include its: 1) unique collaboration of leaders in the field; 2) leveraging of the currently operational infant care practices study infrastructure and hospitals; 3) use of two complementary interventions with the potential for synergistic impact; 4) use of social marketing strategies;5) use of mobile technology (mHealth) to deliver messages; and 6) collaboration with community resources and expertise. The SMART study will have four arms in which 16 hospitals are randomly assigned to one of the following study groups: 1) Safe Sleep Nursery Education and Breastfeeding mHealth messaging; 2) Breastfeeding Nursery Education and Safe Sleep mHealth messaging; 3) Safe Sleep Nursery Education and Safe Sleep mHealth messaging; 4) Breastfeeding Nursery Education and Breastfeeding mHealth messaging. A total of 1600 mothers will be recruited (100/hospital), with 400 in each study group. The primary aim is to assess the effectiveness of the interventions aimed at promoting safe sleep practices compared with the breastfeeding control interventions. The secondary aim is to assess potential mediating factors that may explain the intervention effects on infant care practices and that may inform areas for future improved intervention approaches. With the successful completion of the SMART study, effectiveness data will have been provided for two interventions to improve adherence to safe sleep practices that are practical to disseminate nationally in multiple diverse settings.

Study Overview

• Status: Completed
• Conditions: Risk Reduction
• Intervention / Treatment: Behavioral: Safe Sleep Nursery Education; Behavioral: Breastfeeding Mobile Health Messaging; Behavioral: Breastfeeding Nursery Education; Behavioral: Safe Sleep Mobile Health Messaging

Detailed Description

FOA PAR-11-242 seeks research that will improve the design, implementation, and effectiveness of interventions to prevent Sudden Infant Death Syndrome (SIDS) and unintentional injury-related infant deaths associated with the sleep environment. The SMART (Social Media and Risk Reduction Training) Infant Care Practices proposal is a collaborative effort among researchers who collectively have generated much of the data on infant care practices that underlie the need for this FOA, and who have access to an already existing and operational infrastructure that permits performance of a large randomized clinical trial to study preventative interventions. This infrastructure was created for the NICHD-funded SAFE Infant Care Practices study, for which mothers are being recruited in 2011, 2012, and 2013 at a nationally-representative group of birth hospitals, with completion of infant care practice surveys at 2-5 months after birth. These hospitals, which will complete their participation in SAFE during 2013, are geographically and culturally diverse, will have had 3 years of baseline infant care practice data collected, and have a proven track record of successful recruitment. We will use our collective extensive experience studying barriers to adherence to safe sleep practices to develop two complementary, culturally competent intervention strategies and to test the effectiveness of each strategy, as well as both strategies in combination. Both of the proposed intervention strategies, described below, were selected largely because they can be used in diverse populations and offer the potential to be rapidly disseminated nationwide.

Nursery Education: A nursery-based training program will be modeled after our successful pilot study and informed by our collective research on barriers to adopting safe sleep practices. We will use social marketing strategies to capture the attention of nursing staff and empower them to improve safe sleep practice modeling and messaging received by mothers and extended families during the post-partum hospital stay.

mHealth: We will use an innovative approach, using mobile messaging, that applies expertise in social marketing to provide multiple short culturally competent videos delivered via email from the end of the post-partum hospital stay through 2 months of age. This strategy will leverage the internet as a powerful tool to access health information, and mobile devices (e.g., cell phones), which have made internet access possible for many, particularly those who are younger, minority, and from lower socioeconomic and educational backgrounds. Using technology to deliver health-related information is likely to be a well-accepted and effective strategy, particularly among minority and low-income populations. Indeed, studies demonstrate that email may be an effective, inexpensive, and time-efficient strategy to transmit health information.

For each of the safe sleep practice interventions (Nursery Education and mHealth), we will develop control interventions in which the Nursery Education or mHealth approach is used to promote breastfeeding. We have chosen breastfeeding as the control intervention because it 1) is not expected to impact endpoints critical to the assessment of the safe sleep practice intervention, and 2) provides health promoting messages to control mothers.

In the SMART study, we propose a 4-arm RCT in which 16 hospitals completing participation in the SAFE study are randomly assigned to one of the following groups (with Safe Sleep Intervention and/or Breastfeeding Control): 1) Safe Sleep Nursery Education and Breastfeeding mHealth messaging; 2) Breastfeeding Nursery Education and Safe Sleep mHealth messaging; 3) Safe Sleep Nursery Education and Safe Sleep mHealth messaging; and 4) Breastfeeding Nursery Education and Breastfeeding mHealth messaging. We are uniquely positioned to design, implement and test the effectiveness of these interventions in a methodologically rigorous way and propose the following specific aims: Primary Aim: To assess the effectiveness of the interventions aimed at promoting safe sleep practices compared with the breastfeeding controls.

Hypothesis:For each recommended safe sleep practice (supine sleep position, not bed sharing, pacifier use, avoiding use of soft bedding), when controlling for other variables, there will be: a) an increased adherence for mothers who received Safe Sleep Nursery Education; b) an increased adherence for mothers who received Safe Sleep mHealth messaging; and c) compared to mothers who received either Safe Sleep Nursery Education or Safe Sleep mHealth messaging alone, an increased adherence for mothers who received both Safe Sleep Nursery Education and Safe Sleep mHealth messaging.

Secondary Aim: Assess potential mediating factors that may explain the intervention effects on infant care practices and that may inform areas for future improved intervention approaches.

Hypothesis: Changes in variables within each of the domains of the Theory of Planned Behavior (Attitudes/Beliefs, Social Norms, Perceived Control) will be mediators of the effectiveness of safe sleep interventions.

• Study Type: Interventional
• Enrollment (Actual): 1600
• Phase: Not Applicable

Participation Criteria

Eligibility Criteria

• Ages Eligible for Study: 18 years and older (Adult, Older Adult)
• Accepts Healthy Volunteers: Yes
• Genders Eligible for Study: Female

Description

Inclusion Criteria:

- mothers must live in the US, deliver a healthy infant in one of the study hospitals, plan to take her baby home with her, and be able to receive emails.

Exclusion Criteria:

- mothers who are not English speaking, whose infant is deceased, those not having custody of the infant, and those whose infants require hospitalization for more than 1 week, or have an ongoing medical problem requiring subspecialty care and mothers who are unable to receive email messages.

Study Plan

How is the study designed?

Design Details

• Primary Purpose: Prevention
• Allocation: Randomized
• Interventional Model: Factorial Assignment
• Masking: Single

Number of Arms

4

Arms and Interventions

Participant Group / Arm	Intervention / Treatment
Other: Safe Sleep Edu and Breastfeeding mHealth; Participants will receive Safe Sleep Nursery Education and Breastfeeding Mobile Health messaging	Behavioral: Safe Sleep Nursery Education; Nursery-based program for safe sleep; Behavioral: Breastfeeding Mobile Health Messaging; Mobile messaging to provide multiple short culturally competent videos to promote breastfeeding delivered via email.
Other: Breastfeeding Edu and Safe Sleep mHealth; Participants will receive the Breastfeeding Nursery Education and the Safe Sleep Mobile Health messaging	Behavioral: Breastfeeding Nursery Education; Nursery-based program to promote breastfeeding; Behavioral: Safe Sleep Mobile Health Messaging; Mobile messaging to provide multiple short culturally competent videos to promote safe sleep practices delivered via email.
Other: Safe Sleep Edu and Safe Sleep mHealth; Participants will receive Safe Sleep Nursery Education and Safe Sleep Mobile Health messaging	Behavioral: Safe Sleep Nursery Education; Nursery-based program for safe sleep; Behavioral: Safe Sleep Mobile Health Messaging; Mobile messaging to provide multiple short culturally competent videos to promote safe sleep practices delivered via email.
Other: Breastfeed Edu and Breastfeed mHealth; Participants will receive Breastfeeding Nursery Education and Breastfeeding Mobile Health messaging	Behavioral: Breastfeeding Mobile Health Messaging; Mobile messaging to provide multiple short culturally competent videos to promote breastfeeding delivered via email.; Behavioral: Breastfeeding Nursery Education; Nursery-based program to promote breastfeeding

What is the study measuring?

Primary Outcome Measures

Outcome Measure	Measure Description	Time Frame
Adherence With Recommended Supine Sleep Position	Hypothesis:For supine sleep position, when controlling for other variables, there will be: a) an increased adherence for mothers who received Safe Sleep Nursery Education; b) an increased adherence for mothers who received Safe Sleep mHealth messaging; and c) compared to mothers who received either Safe Sleep Nursery Education or Safe Sleep mHealth messaging alone, an increased adherence for mothers who received both Safe Sleep Nursery Education and Safe Sleep mHealth messaging. Outcome measures will be assessed by survey conducted when the infant is 2-5 months of age.	6 months
Adherence With Recommended Roomsharing Without Bed Sharing	Hypothesis: For roomsharing without bed sharing, when controlling for other variables, there will be: a) an increased adherence for mothers who received Safe Sleep Nursery Education; b) an increased adherence for mothers who received Safe Sleep mHealth messaging; and c) compared to mothers who received either Safe Sleep Nursery Education or Safe Sleep mHealth messaging alone, an increased adherence for mothers who received both Safe Sleep Nursery Education and Safe Sleep mHealth messaging. Outcome measures will be assessed by survey conducted when the infant is 2-5 months of age.	6 months
Adherence With Recommended Pacifier Use	Hypothesis: For pacifier use, when controlling for other variables, there will be: a) an increased adherence for mothers who received Safe Sleep Nursery Education; b) an increased adherence for mothers who received Safe Sleep mHealth messaging; and c) compared to mothers who received either Safe Sleep Nursery Education or Safe Sleep mHealth messaging alone, an increased adherence for mothers who received both Safe Sleep Nursery Education and Safe Sleep mHealth messaging. Outcome measures will be assessed by survey conducted when the infant is 2-5 months of age.	6 months
Adherence With Recommended Avoiding Use of Soft Bedding	Hypothesis: For each recommended avoidance of soft bedding use, when controlling for other variables, there will be: a) an increased adherence for mothers who received Safe Sleep Nursery Education; b) an increased adherence for mothers who received Safe Sleep mHealth messaging; and c) compared to mothers who received either Safe Sleep Nursery Education or Safe Sleep mHealth messaging alone, an increased adherence for mothers who received both Safe Sleep Nursery Education and Safe Sleep mHealth messaging. Outcome measures will be assessed by survey conducted when the infant is 2-5 months of age.	6 months

Secondary Outcome Measures

Outcome Measure	Measure Description	Time Frame
Number of Participants Reporting Positive/Nonpositive Attitudes Towards Supine Sleep	Questions assessing attitudes toward sleep position included the mothers' ratings regarding if she believed that each infant sleep position (back, side, stomach) made the baby healthy, safer, more comfortable, and kept the baby from choking. Positive attitudes were defined as having positive attitudes toward the recommended behavior AND not having positive attitudes toward other behaviors (e.g., having positive attitudes towards both supine and side sleep would lead to a categorization of not having positive attitudes towards supine sleep only).	6 months
Number of Participants Reporting Positive/Nonpositive Attitudes Towards Roomsharing Without Bedsharing.	Questions assessing attitudes toward sleep location (bedsharing, roomsharing without bedsharing) assessed whether the location was pleasant for the baby and/or mother, safer for the baby, more comfortable for the baby and/or mother, and kept the baby from choking. Positive attitudes were defined as having positive attitudes toward the recommended behavior AND not having positive attitudes toward other behaviors (e.g., having positive attitudes towards both bedsharing and not bedsharing would lead to a categorization of not having positive attitudes towards bedsharing only).	6 months
Number of Participants Reporting Positive/Nonpositive Social Norms re Supine Sleep	Social norms were assessed by asking if the people most important to the mother thought that the baby should sleep in each position or location. Positive social norms were defined as having positive norms toward the recommended behavior AND not having positive norms toward other behaviors.	6 months
Number of Participants Reporting Positive/Nonpositive Social Norms re: Roomsharing Without Bedsharing.	Social norms were assessed by asking if the people most important to the mother thought that the baby should sleep in each position or location. Positive social norms were defined as having positive norms toward the recommended behavior AND not having positive norms toward other behaviors	6 months

Collaborators and Investigators

• Sponsor: University of Virginia
• Collaborators: Boston University; Yale University
• Investigators: Principal Investigator: Michael Corwin, MD, Boston University; Principal Investigator: Eve R Colson, M.D., Yale University; Principal Investigator: Fern R Hauck, M.D., M.S., University of Virginia; Principal Investigator: Rachel Moon, MD, University of Virginia

Publications and helpful links

General Publications

• Moon RY, Corwin MJ, Kerr S, Heeren T, Colson E, Kellams A, Geller NL, Drake E, Tanabe K, Hauck FR. Mediators of Improved Adherence to Infant Safe Sleep Using a Mobile Health Intervention. Pediatrics. 2019 May;143(5):e20182799. doi: 10.1542/peds.2018-2799.
• Moon RY, Hauck FR, Colson ER, Kellams AL, Geller NL, Heeren T, Kerr SM, Drake EE, Tanabe K, McClain M, Corwin MJ. The Effect of Nursing Quality Improvement and Mobile Health Interventions on Infant Sleep Practices: A Randomized Clinical Trial. JAMA. 2017 Jul 25;318(4):351-359. doi: 10.1001/jama.2017.8982.

Study record dates

Study Major Dates

• Study Start: March 1, 2015
• Primary Completion (Actual): October 1, 2016
• Study Completion (Actual): October 1, 2017

Study Registration Dates

• First Submitted: October 19, 2012
• First Submitted That Met QC Criteria: October 23, 2012
• First Posted (Estimate): October 25, 2012

Study Record Updates

• Last Update Posted (Actual): January 11, 2019
• Last Update Submitted That Met QC Criteria: January 9, 2019
• Last Verified: January 1, 2019

More Information

Terms related to this study

• Keywords: Breastfeeding; Social Media; Messaging; Safe Sleep
• Other Study ID Numbers: 1R01HD072815-01 (U.S. NIH Grant/Contract)

Plan for Individual participant data (IPD)

• Plan to Share Individual Participant Data (IPD)?: NO