At Home Spirometry and Video Module Education for COPD Patients (BREATHES)

BREATHES: Bringing Respiratory Education for Improved Adherence and Technique Home Through E-interventions for Self-management

The central hypothesis is that patients hospitalized for COPD who subsequently complete the at-home BREATHES Program with V-TTG skill training and SpiroPD adherence support will retain increased medication knowledge, skill, self-efficacy, and adherence that otherwise decays substantially by 30 days post-discharge. To test this hypothesis, this study proposes the following specific aims:

Aim 1: Determine the feasibility of, adherence to, and efficacy of at-home V-TTG for ongoing inhaler skill training.

Hypothesis: Participants who complete both in-hospital and at-home V-TTG will have a significantly increased likelihood of demonstrating effective respiratory inhaler technique within 30 days after hospital discharge compared to in-hospital technique

Aim 2. Determine the feasibility of, adherence to, and efficacy of at-home SpiroPD for COPD medication adherence support.

Hypothesis: Participants' use of SpiroPD (PMD Healthcare) will significantly improve their COPD medication adherence.

Study Overview

• Status: Completed
• Conditions: COPD
• Intervention / Treatment: Other: BREATHES Program; Device: BREATHES SpiroPD or Propeller Health

Detailed Description

Chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD) results in nearly 750,000 hospitalizations annually and is the third leading cause of 30-day hospital readmissions in the United States.Improving the quality of care for hospitalized COPD patients has recently become a national priority through the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services' Hospital Readmissions Reduction Program. A key element of improving care quality is translating existing evidence into improved practice. Extensive evidence exists to support the efficacy of inhaled medications to control and reduce COPD symptoms and to improve patient outcomes. However, the real-world effectiveness of these medications is often limited due both to poor inhaler technique and to insufficient adherence to treatment plans. Most interventions for hospitalized patients with COPD focus on medication reconciliation, treatment optimization, and inhaler technique education prior to being discharged home. However, after discharge home, patients quickly lose inhaler technique skills, have difficulty adhering to complex regimens, and lack tools to aid adherence, such as lung function response to their treatment regimen. Interventions to reinforce skills and support adherence are needed across care transitions to reduce the risk of deleterious health outcomes.

Simple and feasible at-home interventions to provide skills training and adherence support are needed. This novel idea is to pair at-home inhaler skill training with at-home spirometry measurements to comprehensively support both medication skill and adherence. The investigator proposes testing a novel at-home self-management support program called "BREATHES" (Bringing Respiratory Education for improved Adherence and Technique Home through E-interventions for Self-management) Program. BREATHES will include two main components: first, self-directed inhaler skill training sessions through the virtual Teach-To-Goal (V-TTG) intervention the investigator developed and tested during a K23 grant and, second, a handheld lung function device to provide physiologic feedback and capture medication adherence called SpiroPD. TTG is a patient-centered strategy that uses cycles of assessment and demonstration tailored to patients' self-management needs; the investigator's research shows in-person TTG is effective for teaching inhaler technique and reduces acute care utilization. Virtual-TTG delivers the key features of TTG using virtual patient-directed lessons through novel adaptive technology that provides tailored self-assessment and training. The investigator's studies demonstrate participants' willingness to use V-TTG at-home for post-discharge booster education and show that V-TTG is effective and may be non-inferior to in-person TTG in significantly reducing inhaler misuse among hospitalized patients. However, it remains unknown whether at-home V-TTG sessions will maintain self-management skills over the longer term and how direct physiologic lung monitoring support can impact medication adherence. The proposed studies will determine whether combining at-home skill training with objective measurements of lung function and adherence monitoring through the BREATHES Program improves self-management skills and medication adherence in the first 30 days after hospitalization for COPD.

• Study Type: Interventional
• Enrollment (Actual): 71
• Phase: Not Applicable

Contacts and Locations

Study Locations

• United States
  • Illinois
    • Chicago, Illinois, United States, 60637
      • University of Chicago Medicine

Participation Criteria

Eligibility Criteria

• Ages Eligible for Study: 18 years and older (Adult, Older Adult)
• Accepts Healthy Volunteers: No
• Genders Eligible for Study: All

Description

Inclusion Criteria:

1. Age 18 years and older
2. Physician-diagnosed COPD (prior to or during hospitalization)
3. Owns a wifi-enabled device (desktop, laptop, tablet, smart phone, etc.)
4. Discharged with a rescue and/or controller MDI (metered dose inhaler).

Exclusion Criteria:

1. Currently in an intensive care unit
2. Physician declines to provide consent
3. Patient unable to provide consent (e.g., history of cognitive impairment, unable to understand English) or declines to provide consent

Study Plan

How is the study designed?

Design Details

• Primary Purpose: Health Services Research
• Allocation: N/A
• Interventional Model: Single Group Assignment
• Masking: None (Open Label)

Number of Arms

1

Arms and Interventions

Participant Group / Arm

Intervention / Treatment

Other: At-Home Breathes Program; Participants will participate in the at-home BREATHES program which will consist of a video education module and using a hand-held spirometry device, SpiroPD.

Other: BREATHES Program; Participants will complete inhaler education using the virtual education module at the baseline visit of the study. Additionally, they will be asked to complete the lesson at least once before their 30 day follow-up visit on their personal device once they have been discharged from the hospital. At the time of their initial study visit, study participants will be given a SpiroPD device for use at home following instruction in the hospital or clinic. Patient adherence to daily testing over one-month will be monitored using real-time capture Wi-Fi-data from the SpiroPD data portal. A small device will be attached to track real-time medication use.; Device: BREATHES SpiroPD or Propeller Health; At the time of their initial study visit, study participants may be given a SpiroPD device for use at home following instruction in the hospital or clinic. Patient adherence to daily testing over one-month will be monitored using real-time capture Wi-Fi-data from the SpiroPD data portal. A small device will be attached to track real-time medication use.

What is the study measuring?

Primary Outcome Measures

Outcome Measure	Measure Description	Time Frame
Virtual Education Module Adherence	Number of participants who completed the virtual education module at least once before the 30 day follow-up visit.	30 days
Rate of SpiroPD Device Usage for At-Home COPD Self-Management	Number of participants who used the SpiroPD device to perform lung function test and keep track of medications post-discharge.	30 days
Inhaler Technique	Percent of participants who misused their inhalers (≤10/12 steps correct) at baseline, post-baseline inhaler education, and at 30-day follow-up	Baseline; Baseline post-education; 30-day post-discharge

Secondary Outcome Measures

Outcome Measure	Measure Description	Time Frame
Change in Self-Efficacy for Inhalers: 5 Point Likert Scale	Patient self-efficacy regarding proper inhaler technique on a 5 point Likert scale, 1 to 5 where 1 is Not Sure at All and 5 is Completely Sure. This outcome was measured at baseline just prior to VTTG inhaler education and again at baseline immediately after VTTG inhaler education. Scores of 3-5 were coded as "confident"; scores of 1-2 were coded as "not confident".	Baseline Pre-VTTG (right before the lesson); Baseline Post-VTTG (immediately after baseline lesson - within 30 minutes)
Change in Symptom Burden	Self reported measure using two validated surveys, The Modified Borg Dyspnea Scale (rating of shortness of breath from 0-10 where 0 is not at all and 10 is maximal) and a modified COPD Severity Tool (the possible COPD severity score range is 0 to 26, with higher scores reflecting more severe disease). These measures were assessed at baseline prior to VTTG education and again 30 days post-discharge.	Baseline; 30 days post-discharge
Change in Quality of Life: The Airway Questionnaire (AQ-20)	Using the validated survey, The Airway Questionnaire (AQ-20), a 20-item survey that assesses effect of current symptoms in everyday life for patients with COPD, to assess the change in quality of life from before the BREATHES program to after. The AQ-20 contains 20 items, with scores ranging from 0 to 20 (total score maximum is 20). High scores indicate poor quality of life. This measure was assessed at Baseline prior to VTTG education and again at 30 days post-discharge.	Baseline; 30 days post-discharge
Use of Acute Care Services	Using University of Chicago Medical Center data and chart reviews, the investigators will examine the use of acute care services within the 30 day window of participation within the study.	30 day

Collaborators and Investigators

• Sponsor: University of Chicago
• Collaborators: National Heart, Lung, and Blood Institute (NHLBI)
• Investigators: Principal Investigator: Valerie G Press, MD, MPH, Associate Professor

Study record dates

Study Major Dates

• Study Start (Actual): April 11, 2019
• Primary Completion (Actual): June 23, 2021
• Study Completion (Actual): June 23, 2021

Study Registration Dates

• First Submitted: February 1, 2019
• First Submitted That Met QC Criteria: February 6, 2019
• First Posted (Actual): February 7, 2019

Study Record Updates

• Last Update Posted (Actual): July 22, 2022
• Last Update Submitted That Met QC Criteria: July 19, 2022
• Last Verified: July 1, 2022

More Information

Terms related to this study

• Other Study ID Numbers: IRB18-1210; R03HL144883 (U.S. NIH Grant/Contract)

Drug and device information, study documents

• Studies a U.S. FDA-regulated drug product: No
• Studies a U.S. FDA-regulated device product: Yes
• product manufactured in and exported from the U.S.: Yes