Texting Atopic Dermatitis Patients to Optimize Learning and EASI Scores (TADPOLES)

August 21, 2017 updated by: Christine Lauren, Columbia University
The purpose of this study is to determine if sending text messages with treatment reminders and facts regarding atopic dermatitis (AD) to caretakers of children with AD will have a positive effect on the disease severity.

Study Overview

Status

Completed

Conditions

Intervention / Treatment

Detailed Description

Atopic dermatitis (AD) is a common, chronic, and debilitating disease that tends to present in children under age 2 and has a waxing and waning course. Poor adherence to treatment is the primary preventable contributor towards adverse outcomes such as infection, hospitalization, permanent disfigurement, and disruptions in normal childhood psychological development. The burden of care for these patients often falls upon parents, who may have difficulty incorporating the necessary daily treatments into the family's lifestyle. Thus, investigating ways of improving adherence could have a significant impact on a patient's long term prognosis and the family's ability to understand and adjust to the demands of AD.Text message reminders with embedded health literacy information have been shown to improve vaccination rates in children and caregivers have reported increased satisfaction with this means of communication.

This study aims to assess whether text message reminders with information about AD are an effective way to improve treatment adherence and provide disease specific information to caregivers of children with AD. The measure of AD severity will be the Eczema Area and Severity Index (EASI) score. Health literacy with regard to AD will be assessed via in-office survey.This study will involve children age 0-6 with newly diagnosed AD and their primary caregivers. The subjects will be randomized to standard care or text message reminder group. All study participants will be asked to complete a survey after their initial evaluation and after their follow up visit on the same day they are in the office. The text message group will receive text messages with information and treatment reminders. All participants will receive the standard of care with regard to AD.

If this study demonstrates that text message reminders can improve EASI scores in AD patients it could lead to a significant change in how these patients are managed. Fewer complications from episodic flares, infections, and other sequelae may lessen the burden of this disease for both patients and their caregivers. Text messaging is an inexpensive, noninvasive, and broadly applicable tool that is worth studying for the purpose of improving treatment adherence and disease literacy.

Study Type

Interventional

Enrollment (Actual)

84

Phase

  • 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
    • New York
      • New York, New York, United States, 10032
        • Columbia University Medical Center, Department of Dermatology

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

Ages Eligible for Study

No older than 6 years (Child)

Accepts Healthy Volunteers

No

Genders Eligible for Study

All

Description

Inclusion Criteria:

  • New clinical diagnosis of atopic dermatitis
  • New patient to Columbia University Medical Center, Department of Dermatology
  • Caregiver has mobile that can send/receive text messages

Exclusion Criteria:

  • Age over 7 years
  • Caregiver is not fluent English speaker
  • Those patients in which a definitive diagnosis of atopic dermatitis cannot be made
  • Any individual who declines participation

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: Randomized
  • Interventional Model: Parallel Assignment
  • Masking: Single

Arms and Interventions

Participant Group / Arm
Intervention / Treatment
Experimental: Text Message Intervention + Standard Care
Enrolled patients and their caregivers who are randomized to this group will receive the usual standard of care for atopic dermatitis patients treated at this institution as well as daily text messages with information about atopic dermatitis and treatment reminders. 1-2 times/week they will receive a message asking if they were able to complete their treatments in the last day. They will respond with 1=yes, 2=no, 3= I have questions about the treatment. Those who respond with 3 will be sent the contact information for the office. No other communications will be sent through text messages. Caregivers will take two in-office surveys: one upon enrollment, and one follow-up survey at the follow-up visit. Patient EASI Score will be assessed by the pediatric dermatologist and initial and follow up exam.
Behavioral: Text messages
Daily text messages with information about atopic dermatitis and treatment reminders.
No Intervention: Standard Care
Enrolled patients and their caregivers who are randomized to this group will receive the usual standard of care for atopic dermatitis patients treated at this institution. They will not receive text messages. Caregivers will take two in-office surveys: one upon enrollment, and one follow-up survey at the follow-up visit. Patient EASI Score will be assessed by the pediatric dermatologist and initial and follow up exam.

What is the study measuring?

Primary Outcome Measures

Outcome Measure
Measure Description
Time Frame
EASI Score
Time Frame: Up to 6 weeks
Patient EASI Score (0-72) will be determined at initial and follow up exam. Mean differences in EASI scores between arms will be assessed using t-tests since EASI scores are used to measure the severity of a patient's atopic dermatitis.
Up to 6 weeks

Secondary Outcome Measures

Outcome Measure
Measure Description
Time Frame
Patient Satisfaction
Time Frame: Up to 6 weeks
The investigators will assess mean difference in reported satisfaction, as indicated on follow up survey, between arms using t-tests.
Up to 6 weeks

Collaborators and Investigators

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

Sponsor

Columbia University

Investigators

  • Principal Investigator: Christine Lauren, MD, Columbia University

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)

May 1, 2016

Primary Completion (Actual)

June 1, 2017

Study Completion (Actual)

July 1, 2017

Study Registration Dates

First Submitted

May 18, 2016

First Submitted That Met QC Criteria

May 18, 2016

First Posted (Estimate)

May 20, 2016

Study Record Updates

Last Update Posted (Actual)

August 22, 2017

Last Update Submitted That Met QC Criteria

August 21, 2017

Last Verified

August 1, 2017

More Information

Terms related to this study

Keywords

Additional Relevant MeSH Terms

Other Study ID Numbers

  • AAAQ7858

Plan for Individual participant data (IPD)

Plan to Share Individual Participant Data (IPD)?

Undecided

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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