South Carolina WIC Telehealth Solution

May 29, 2024 updated by: Erin Hennessy, Tufts University

South Carolina Telehealth Solution

With funding through USDA and Tufts University's Telehealth Intervention Strategies for WIC (THIS-WIC) project, the South Carolina WIC department will be implementing a telehealth solution for nutrition and breastfeeding support. The purpose of this study is to evaluate this telehealth solution. The research/evaluation involves completing online surveys. The evaluation will focus on participant satisfaction, usage of the telehealth solution, and use of information collected on the WIC participant through the WIC management information system (MIS). It is hypothesized that the telehealth solution will increase WIC participant's satisfaction with nutrition and breastfeeding support while also reducing the burden of attending in-person care.

Study Overview

Status

Completed

Conditions

Intervention / Treatment

Detailed Description

Telehealth can reduce barriers and increase access to care, and it can be applied to the Special Supplemental Nutrition Program for Women, Infants, and Children (WIC). WIC is a federal nutrition assistance program that helps low-income women with children up to age 5. There is a large volume of research that supports remote patient monitoring, and the most benefits are found when telehealth is used for communication and counseling. The USDA awarded Tufts University a grant to test and evaluate the use of telehealth innovations in the delivery of USDA's WIC program. Tufts University then offered the USDA/Tufts Telehealth Intervention Strategies for WIC (THIS-WIC) grant opportunity to WIC state agencies across the US. THIS-WIC selected 7 WIC State Agencies to receive grants, and the South Carolina state agency is one recipient. The THIS-WIC team at Tufts University is leading the evaluation of these telehealth solutions in collaboration with funded WIC State Agencies.

THIS-WIC aims to generate evidence from South Carolina's telehealth solution to inform how the telehealth platform supports WIC services compared to usual in-person care. Evaluation findings will inform stakeholders about the platform's benefits and how viable it is to sustain and adapt more widely.

The purpose of this study is to evaluate the effectiveness of this telehealth solution by having clients complete surveys on their comfortability using telehealth and their satisfaction with the telehealth appointment. Additionally, secondary demographic and other nutrition-related information about study participants is already collected in the MIS and will be utilized.

Study Type

Interventional

Enrollment (Actual)

50

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
    • Massachusetts
      • Boston, Massachusetts, United States, 02111
        • Tufts University

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

  • Adult
  • Older Adult

Accepts Healthy Volunteers

Yes

Description

Inclusion Criteria:

  • Pregnant women
  • Breastfeeding women
  • Postpartum women with children in the age range of 0 to 5 years

Exclusion Criteria:

-

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: Other
  • Allocation: Randomized
  • Interventional Model: Parallel Assignment
  • Masking: None (Open Label)

Arms and Interventions

Participant Group / Arm
Intervention / Treatment
Experimental: Telehealth solution
Telehealth solution offered
Behavioral: Telehealth solution
Telehealth solution offered for nutrition education and breastfeeding support.
No Intervention: Usual care
Control

What is the study measuring?

Primary Outcome Measures

Outcome Measure
Measure Description
Time Frame
Satisfaction with the telehealth solution
Time Frame: During the study period, approximately 18 months
WIC clients satisfaction with nutrition education and breastfeeding support offered via the telehealth solution compared to usual care. Data will be collected, and this outcome measure will be assessed via survey completion by study participants.
During the study period, approximately 18 months

Secondary Outcome Measures

Outcome Measure
Measure Description
Time Frame
Attendance at scheduled appointments
Time Frame: During the study period, approximately 18 months
WIC clients attendance at appointments when offered the telehealth solution compared to usual care. Data will be collected, and this outcome measure will be assessed via survey completion by study participants.
During the study period, approximately 18 months
Dietary intake
Time Frame: During the study period, approximately 18 months
Impact of the telehealth solution compared to usual care on dietary intake. Data will be collected, and this outcome measure will be assessed via survey completion by study participants.
During the study period, approximately 18 months
Attitudes to breastfeeding and nutrition education
Time Frame: During the study period, approximately 18 months
Impact of the telehealth solution compared to usual care on WIC clients' attitudes to breastfeeding and nutrition education. Data will be collected, and this outcome measure will be assessed via survey completion by study participants.
During the study period, approximately 18 months
Barriers encountered in obtaining nutrition education and breastfeeding support
Time Frame: During the study period, approximately 18 months
Impact of the telehealth solution compared to usual care on barriers encountered by WIC clients in obtaining nutrition education and breastfeeding support. Data will be collected, and this outcome measure will be assessed via survey completion by study participants.
During the study period, approximately 18 months
Breastfeeding duration
Time Frame: During the study period, approximately 18 months
Duration of breastfeeding in clients offered the telehealth solution compared to usual care. Data will be collected, and this outcome measure will be assessed via survey completion by study participants
During the study period, approximately 18 months

Collaborators and Investigators

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

Sponsor

Tufts University

Collaborators

United States Department of Agriculture (USDA)
RTI International
South Carolina Department of Health and Environmental Control (DHEC)

Investigators

  • Principal Investigator: Erin Hennessy, PhD, Tufts 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.

Helpful Links

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)

April 4, 2022

Primary Completion (Actual)

November 30, 2023

Study Completion (Actual)

November 30, 2023

Study Registration Dates

First Submitted

May 24, 2023

First Submitted That Met QC Criteria

May 24, 2023

First Posted (Actual)

June 5, 2023

Study Record Updates

Last Update Posted (Actual)

May 31, 2024

Last Update Submitted That Met QC Criteria

May 29, 2024

Last Verified

May 1, 2024

More Information

Terms related to this study

Keywords

Other Study ID Numbers

  • IRB.22-012

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

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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