Text Messages for Liver Transplant Recipients

Text Messages for Adolescent and Young Adult Liver Transplant Recipients

Although medical advancements have enabled children experiencing liver transplants to live longer, medical management post-transplant is ongoing and complex. Many findings underscore adolescents as being a particularly vulnerable population, with rates of nonadherence being four times higher than in adults. This pilot study aims to explore the feasibility and impact of a brief text-messaging intervention in a randomized controlled trials (N = 50). We have three primary aims: 1) Study patient satisfaction with and utilization of this intervention in order to better understand feasibility and acceptability; 2) Investigate the effects of this intervention on medication adherence, healthcare utilization, and health status; and 3) Examine potential effects of the intervention on the physician-patient relationship, motivation for adherence, and other variables.

Study Overview

• Status: Completed
• Conditions: Medication Adherence; Liver Transplant Disorder
• Intervention / Treatment: Behavioral: Praise Text Messages

Detailed Description

The proposed randomized control pilot study will be based at the Liver Transplant Clinic at CHLA. Approximately 25 participants will be randomly assigned to the intervention arm, whereas 25 participants will be assigned to treatment as usual (TAU), for a total sample size of N = 50. As there are approximately 90 patients who meet inclusion criteria currently in care, recruiting 50 for this study is feasible. The intervention will last for six months. During this time, participants in the intervention arm will receive a brief text-message on their cell-phones whenever laboratory blood tests indicate that immunosuppressant medications are within the expected range. This will primarily be measured via trough levels of calcineurin inhibitors, but will also take into account complete blood count, comprehensive metabolic panel, and magnesium level results, as reviewed by the transplant physician. The purpose of these text messages is to alert participants that physicians are indeed checking participant liver levels and recognizing when participants are putting in the work to keep themselves healthy. Multiple standardized text messages will be created so that participants do not receive identical ones each time. An example text message may include "Your liver levels have been checked and look good. The effort you are putting into taking your meds shows!" Participants in the TAU arm will not receive any text messages.If trough levels or any other study measure indicates possible nonadherence, nonadherence will still be addressed by their physicians, social work, or whatever is indicated per clinic standard of care. Furthermore, additional psychosocial or medical support will not be withheld from patients whose labs indicate nonadherence for either the intervention or TAU arms.

All participants will complete questionnaires at four points: Baseline, mid-way through the intervention period (three-months), immediately after the conclusion of the intervention (six-months), and three months post-intervention. Participants will complete self-report measures assessing medication adherence (Visual Analogue Scale), participants' sense of trust in their medical providers (Trust in Physician Scale) and motivation for medication adherence (Rollnick's Readiness Ruler). In addition, participants will complete self-reported measures of anxiety (General Anxiety Disorder-7), depression (Patient Health Questionnaire-9), and socioeconomic status (Family Affluence Scale II). Several variables will also be abstracted from the electronic medical record, from one year prior to study enrollment to one year post study enrollment. At the end of the intervention, participants will complete an exit survey assessing its feasibility and acceptability. They will be asked to discuss which components of the intervention were most helpful, so this information can be used for possible dismantling study approaches in the future. Twenty-five participants will also be randomly selected and asked to participate in a 30-60 minute telephone interview in order to assess feasibility and acceptability of the study, as well as gain their insight regarding potentially helpful future interventions. Medical or psychosocial support will not be withheld from patients who drop out of the study or do not complete study measures. All data will be collected via Redcap, a HIPAA-compliant on-line platform that will allow participants to complete measures securely on-line at home.

• Study Type: Interventional
• Enrollment (Actual): 35
• Phase: Not Applicable

Contacts and Locations

Study Locations

• United States
  • California
    • Los Angeles, California, United States, 90027
      • Children's Hospital Los Angeles

Participation Criteria

Eligibility Criteria

• Ages Eligible for Study: 13 years to 21 years (Child, Adult)
• Accepts Healthy Volunteers: No
• Genders Eligible for Study: All

Description

Inclusion Criteria:

• having a liver transplant
• receiving care at Children's Hospital Los Angeles
• having access to a working cellphone
• speaking English.

Exclusion Criteria:

• insufficient cognitive capacity to understand or engage in the procedures of the study

Study Plan

How is the study designed?

Design Details

• Primary Purpose: Supportive Care
• Allocation: Randomized
• Interventional Model: Parallel Assignment
• Masking: Single

Number of Arms

2

Arms and Interventions

Participant Group / Arm	Intervention / Treatment
Experimental: Praise Text Messages; The text message praise intervention lasted for 6 months. Each week, transplant coordinators, masked from who enrolled in the study or to which condition participants were randomized, prepared a list of all patients in the study age group whose laboratory blood tests indicated that immunosuppressant medications were within the expected range. A researcher reviewed the list to identify whether any of patients were currently assigned to the intervention, and if so, sent text message praise via REDCap's text message function. We rotated through 14 standardized text messages each week. Examples of messages included: "Your labs look very good. Super job taking your meds!" and "Your labs look great! Thanks for putting in the effort to take care of your health!."	Behavioral: Praise Text Messages; Texting messages with praise content, to positive reinforce medication adherence
No Intervention: Usual Care; Participants in the usual care arm did not receive any praise text messages. All participants continued to receive usual care from the multidisciplinary liver transplant team, including phone calls and follow-up care when laboratory blood tests indicated that immunosuppressant medications were outside of the expected range.

What is the study measuring?

Primary Outcome Measures

Outcome Measure	Measure Description	Time Frame
Self-Reported Medication Adherence	Visual Analogue Scale (0-100% range, with higher scores indicating better values)	9 months
Medication Variability Observed in Immunosuppressant Labs	medication level variability index (calculated as standard deviation of at least 3 lab values, with lower scores indicating better values)	12 months

Secondary Outcome Measures

Outcome Measure	Measure Description	Time Frame
Motivation for Adherence	Rollnick's Readiness Ruler (0-10 range, with higher scores indicating better values)	9 months

Collaborators and Investigators

• Sponsor: Children's Hospital Los Angeles

Publications and helpful links

General Publications

• Walsh JC, Dalton M, Gazzard BG. Adherence to combination antiretroviral therapy assessed by anonymous patient self-report. AIDS. 1998 Dec 3;12(17):2361-3. No abstract available.
• Rollnick S, Miller WR, Butler C. Motivational interviewing in health care: helping patients change behavior. Guilford Press; 2008.
• Shemesh E, Fine RN. Is calculating the standard deviation of tacrolimus blood levels the new gold standard for evaluating non-adherence to medications in transplant recipients? Pediatr Transplant. 2010 Dec;14(8):940-3. doi: 10.1111/j.1399-3046.2010.01396.x. Epub 2010 Oct 1.

Study record dates

Study Major Dates

• Study Start (Actual): August 1, 2019
• Primary Completion (Actual): December 26, 2020
• Study Completion (Actual): December 26, 2020

Study Registration Dates

• First Submitted: July 30, 2021
• First Submitted That Met QC Criteria: July 30, 2021
• First Posted (Actual): August 9, 2021

Study Record Updates

• Last Update Posted (Actual): August 23, 2021
• Last Update Submitted That Met QC Criteria: August 17, 2021
• Last Verified: August 1, 2021

More Information

Terms related to this study

• Other Study ID Numbers: CHLA-19-00189

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