AIM2ACT: A Mobile Health Tool to Help Adolescents Self-Manage Asthma (AIM2ACT)

The aim is to test the efficacy of AIM2ACT and long-term maintenance of treatment effects in a fully-powered randomized controlled trial with 160 early adolescents with poorly controlled persistent asthma, ages 12-15 years, and a caregiver

Study Overview

• Status: Completed
• Conditions: Asthma
• Intervention / Treatment: Behavioral: AIM2ACT; Behavioral: mHealth Attention Control Condition

• Study Type: Interventional
• Enrollment (Actual): 320
• Phase: Not Applicable

Contacts and Locations

Study Locations

• United States
  • Florida
    • Gainesville, Florida, United States, 32610
      • UF Health Pediatrics
    • Jacksonville, Florida, United States, 32207
      • Nemours Children's Hospital

Participation Criteria

Eligibility Criteria

• Ages Eligible for Study: 12 years to 70 years (Child, Adult, Older Adult)
• Accepts Healthy Volunteers: No

Description

Inclusion criteria are:

1. Adolescent is 12-15 years old
2. Caregiver is between 18-70 years-old
3. Adolescent lives in the residence of caregiver
4. Adolescent and caregiver can speak and read English
5. (a) Adolescent has been diagnosed as having asthma, OR (b) Doctor has stated the adolescent has asthma, OR (c) Adolescent has had breathing problems in the past 12 months
6. Adolescent has had an active inhaled corticosteroid prescription for ≥ 4 weeks

7. (a) During the past 14 days (that is, during the past fourteen 24-hour periods that include daytime and nighttime), the adolescent has experienced one or more of the following: (i) Asthma symptoms such as wheezing, shortness of breath, or tightness in the chest, or cough on more than 4 separate days; (ii) Woken up because of asthma symptoms such as wheezing, shortness of breath, or tightness in the chest, or cough on 1 or more separate nights; (iii) Had to slow down or stop play or usual activities or missed school because of asthma, wheezing, or tightness in the chest, or cough on more than 4 separate days; (iv) Used any asthma rescue medicine (sometimes called a quick relief medicine) on more than 4 separate days

   • OR

     (b) In the past year, adolescent has had one or more of the following: (i) 2 or more exacerbations requiring oral systemic corticosteroids; (ii) 2 or more emergency department visits; (iii) 1 hospitalization; (iv) 2 or more urgent medical care visits due to asthma

   • OR

     (c) Adolescent scores 19 or lower on the Asthma Control Test

Exclusion criteria are -

Families will be excluded if:

1. The family is currently involved in an asthma management intervention above and beyond usual care, OR
2. Adolescent is unable to complete study procedures independently.

Study Plan

How is the study designed?

Design Details

• Primary Purpose: Treatment
• Allocation: Randomized
• Interventional Model: Parallel Assignment
• Masking: Double

Number of Arms

2

Arms and Interventions

Participant Group / Arm	Intervention / Treatment
Experimental: AIM2ACT; AIM2ACT is the experimental arm for the trial. AIM2ACT is a dyadic mHealth intervention designed to sustain caregiver involvement and monitoring as well as guide dyads through collaborative asthma management.	Behavioral: AIM2ACT; AIM2ACT is a mobile health tool that is designed to facilitate collaborative asthma management between early adolescents and their caregivers. AIM2ACT contains the following components: 1) ecological momentary assessment to identify personalized strengths and weaknesses in asthma self-management behaviors; 2) collaborative identification and tracking of goals that help early adolescents to become increasingly independent in managing their asthma; and 3) a suite of engaging skills training videos to help dyads understand how to use AIM2ACT and work together to set asthma self-management goals, develop and achieve the goals articulated in a behavioral contract, and engage in problem-solving communication.
Active Comparator: mHealth Attention Control Condition; The mHealth attention control condition is the active comparator arm in the trial that accounts for staff attention and novelty of technology based asthma management intervention.	Behavioral: mHealth Attention Control Condition; Dyads in the mHealth attention control condition will not receive personalized asthma management feedback, will not be guided through collaborative identification and tracking of asthma self-management goals, and will not have access to skills training videos. Instead, dyads will receive static educational information on their smartphones about behavioral management techniques they can use to target improving asthma self-management.

What is the study measuring?

Primary Outcome Measures

Outcome Measure	Measure Description	Time Frame
Asthma Control using asthma control questionnaire	Measured via the Asthma Control Test questionnaire which has 5 items that assesses frequency of daytime and nocturnal asthma symptoms, activity limitations, and perceptions of disease control.Adolescents will complete all 5 items independently of caregivers. Scores range from 5 (poor control of asthma) to 25 (complete control of asthma), with higher scores reflecting greater asthma control. An ACT score >19 indicates well-controlled asthma."	Change in baseline, post-intervention,3 months, and 6 months, and 12 month follow-up

Collaborators and Investigators

• Sponsor: University of Florida
• Collaborators: National Heart, Lung, and Blood Institute (NHLBI)
• Investigators: Principal Investigator: Sreekala Prabhakaran, M.D., University of Florida

Publications and helpful links

General Publications

• Fedele DA, Thomas JG, McQuaid EL, Gurka M, Berg CA, Prabhakaran S. AIM2ACT: Randomized controlled trial protocol for a mobile health intervention for early adolescents with asthma. Contemp Clin Trials. 2022 Dec;123:107011. doi: 10.1016/j.cct.2022.107011. Epub 2022 Nov 15.

Study record dates

Study Major Dates

• Study Start (Actual): April 23, 2021
• Primary Completion (Actual): January 22, 2026
• Study Completion (Actual): January 22, 2026

Study Registration Dates

• First Submitted: June 22, 2020
• First Submitted That Met QC Criteria: June 23, 2020
• First Posted (Actual): June 25, 2020

Study Record Updates

• Last Update Posted (Actual): April 1, 2026
• Last Update Submitted That Met QC Criteria: March 26, 2026
• Last Verified: March 1, 2025

More Information

Terms related to this study

• Keywords: Adolescent
• Additional Relevant MeSH Terms: Immune System Diseases; Respiratory Tract Diseases; Lung Diseases; Bronchial Diseases; Lung Diseases, Obstructive; Respiratory Hypersensitivity; Hypersensitivity, Immediate; Hypersensitivity; Asthma
• Other Study ID Numbers: IRB202000748; R01HL153119 (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