Technology-enabled Task-sharing for Depression in Primary Care

Discovering the Capacity of Primary Care Frontline Staff to Deliver a Low-Intensity Technology-Enhanced Intervention to Treat Geriatric Depression

This study will explore and test the feasibility, acceptability, usability, and preliminary effectiveness of a technology-enabled intervention for depression using task-sharing in primary care. We will a) discover barriers and facilitators to task-sharing by frontline primary care staff; b) design an implementation strategy to support task-sharing to deliver a technology-enabled intervention for depression; and c) conduct a small open-label usability trial of the technology-enabled intervention for depression.

Study Overview

• Status: Withdrawn
• Conditions: Depression; Depression in Old Age

Detailed Description

Older adults with depression typically present to primary care rather than specialty mental health treatment and are often un- or undertreated, as the demand for mental health services is greater than the supply of trained providers. Technology is one method to improve access to care by making evidence-based psychosocial interventions (EBPIs) readily accessible. A second method comes from global mental health research, demonstrating that task-sharing can equip non-specialists to provide effective mental health care. This study combines these two approaches, exploring how technology-enhanced EBPI could be used by frontline primary care staff (e.g., nurses, medical assistants) to expand workforce capacity to deliver acceptable, sustainable, and effective treatment for depression. Specifically, we will use task-sharing to deliver a mobile Motivational Physical Activity Targeted Intervention (MPATI), which is based on behavioral activation for depression and uses wearable accelerometer technology to trigger personalized activity goal monitoring. This proposal uses the Discover, Design/Build, Test (DDBT) framework, which leverages user-centered design and implementation science to discover implementation barriers to using task-sharing to deliver MPATI in primary care, to design an implementation strategy to support MPATI delivery, and to conduct a pilot usability trial to test the implementation strategy with the most suitable frontline staff.

• Study Type: Observational

Contacts and Locations

Study Locations

• United States
  • Washington
    • Seattle, Washington, United States, 98195
      • Univeristy of Washington

Participation Criteria

Eligibility Criteria

• Ages Eligible for Study: 60 years and older (Adult, Older Adult)
• Accepts Healthy Volunteers: No

• Sampling Method: Non-Probability Sample

Study Population

Primary care clinics: administrators, primary care providers, behavioral health providers, frontline primary care staff (e.g., nurses, medical assistants)

Patients: older adult primary care patients with mild-to-moderate depressive symptoms

Description

Inclusion Criteria:

Clinics:

1. have at least 1 full-time registered nurse (RN) and/or medical assistant (MA) on staff
2. include older adults on their patient panels.

Clinic administrators

1. have an administrative or leadership role in the clinic
2. have been employed in their current role for at least 6 months.

Frontline staff

1. provide care as RN, MA, case manager, behavioral health consultant, or similar role identified by Practice Champion
2. be employed at the participating clinic for at least 6 months.

Patients

1. be ≥65 years of age
2. report moderate to moderately severe depressive symptoms based on a PHQ-9 score of 10-20
3. own or have access to a smartphone
4. have internet or cellular data plan
5. receive medical clearance from their primary care provider to participate in unstructured physical activity.

Patient exclusion criteria will be based on medical chart review by Practice Champion and include:

1. current suicidality
2. severe vision or hearing impairment
3. pronounced cognitive impairment
4. use of assistive devices that would impede physical activity.

Study Plan

How is the study designed?

Number of groups / cohorts

2

Cohorts and Interventions

Group / Cohort
Staff/Provider end-users; Testing usability of a technology-enabled behavioral intervention for depression among provider end-users in primary care.
Patient participants; Testing acceptability, feasibility, and preliminary effectiveness of a technology-enabled behavioral intervention for depression among patients with depression in primary care.

What is the study measuring?

Primary Outcome Measures

Outcome Measure	Measure Description	Time Frame
Usability (system usability scale)	usability of MPATI intervention among provider end-users	after 2 week usability trial
Usability (qualitative interviews)	usability of MPATI intervention among provider end-users	after 2 week usability trial

Secondary Outcome Measures

Outcome Measure	Measure Description	Time Frame
feasibility -- patient recruitment	feasibility of MPATI intervention for geriatric depression in primary care	end of pilot trial (2 weeks per patient)
acceptability -- patient retention	acceptability of MPATI intervention for geriatric depression in primary care	end of pilot trial (2 weeks per patient)
depressive symptoms (patient)	Patient Health Questionnaire (PHQ-9) total scores to assess depressive symptoms (total score range 0-27; higher scores reflect greater depressive symptoms)	pre-post 2 week pilot trial
functioning (patient)	Sheehan Disability Scale (SDS) total scores to assess functional impairment; total scores range from 0 (unimpaired) to 30 (highly impaired).	pre-post 2 week pilot trial

Other Outcome Measures

Outcome Measure	Measure Description	Time Frame
user burden	user burden of technology-enabled intervention for patients and providers	end of 2 week pilot trial

Collaborators and Investigators

• Sponsor: University of Washington
• Collaborators: National Institute of Mental Health (NIMH)
• Investigators: Principal Investigator: Oleg Zaslavsky, PhD, University of Washington; Principal Investigator: Brenna Renn, PhD, University of Washington

Study record dates

Study Major Dates

• Study Start (Actual): September 1, 2019
• Primary Completion (Actual): July 1, 2020
• Study Completion (Actual): August 31, 2020

Study Registration Dates

• First Submitted: August 9, 2019
• First Submitted That Met QC Criteria: August 9, 2019
• First Posted (Actual): August 13, 2019

Study Record Updates

• Last Update Posted (Actual): May 10, 2023
• Last Update Submitted That Met QC Criteria: May 8, 2023
• Last Verified: May 1, 2023

More Information

Terms related to this study

• Additional Relevant MeSH Terms: Behavioral Symptoms; Mental Disorders; Mood Disorders; Depression; Depressive Disorder
• Other Study ID Numbers: STUDY00006748; P50MH115837 (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: No