Adherence to Hydroxyurea in Children With Sickle Cell Anemia

May 24, 2013 updated by: Duke University

Medication non-adherence is a true public health problem. Despite advancements in the molecular understanding of disease and improvements in therapy, patient health outcomes will not improve unless patients take prescribed medications regularly. Decreasing the gap between efficacious and effective therapy for patients with SCD is an essential research agenda. Hydroxyurea has been shown to be safe and efficacious in children and infants. However, the effectiveness of the prophylaxis depends on adherence to the recommended regimen. Medication adherence in SCD has previously been found to be sub-optimal in patients taking penicillin, desferoxamine, and pain medication. Adherence to HU has been studied to some extent in children with SCD. Based on estimates of adherence in other chronic illness we expect approximately 50% of patients to be >80% adherent with their HU administration. There is no gold standard for improving adherence to treatment. There have been a few attempts in the SCD population to improve adherence. These include a day camp to promote education about desferoxamine and peer support, a combination of a slide-show about SCD and it complications, weekly phone calls by the clinic social worker and a calendar, and a seven-phase educational program. Given the striking improvements in the peripheral blood smear findings of patients with SCD on HU therapy, with reduction in the numbers of sickled cells, we hypothesize that viewing the peripheral blood smear of patients with poor adherence to HU compared to a blood smear of someone on HU can be used to improve adherence in non-adherent patients.

We will conduct a randomized trial between the intervention of regularly showing children and their parents the peripheral blood smear and standard care, including reminders of the importance of compliance and review of complete blood count parameters, including WBC, MCV, and Hgb concentration. The outcome measures will be increase in hemoglobin concentration and %HbF and increase in perceived QOL. QOL will be measured with age-appropriate and parent/proxy PedsQL™. Medication adherence will also be monitored throughout the study with pharmacy prescription refills, physician assessment, and self-report via a visual analogue scale. Adherence estimates, hemoglobin concentration, %HbF and QOL will be measured at baseline, 3 months and 6 months.

Study Overview

Status

Completed

Conditions

Intervention / Treatment

Study Type

Interventional

Enrollment (Actual)

31

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
    • North Carolina
      • Durham, North Carolina, United States, 27710
        • Duke University Medical Center

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

2 years to 17 years (Child)

Accepts Healthy Volunteers

No

Genders Eligible for Study

All

Description

Inclusion Criteria:

  • Sickle cell anemia
  • on Hydroxyurea for at least six months
  • age 2-17.9 years

Exclusion Criteria:

  • none

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: Health Services Research
  • Allocation: Randomized
  • Interventional Model: Parallel Assignment
  • Masking: None (Open Label)

Arms and Interventions

Participant Group / Arm
Intervention / Treatment
Experimental: 1
Blood Smear Education
Behavioral: Blood smear education
education at baseline and three month follow-up
Active Comparator: 2
Standard education
Other: standard education
standard education

What is the study measuring?

Primary Outcome Measures

Outcome Measure
Time Frame
treatment adherence
Time Frame: six months
six months

Collaborators and Investigators

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

Sponsor

Duke University

Collaborators

National Institutes of Health (NIH)

Investigators

  • Principal Investigator: Courtney D Thornburg, MD, MS, Duke University

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

April 1, 2008

Primary Completion (Actual)

November 1, 2012

Study Completion (Actual)

November 1, 2012

Study Registration Dates

First Submitted

May 4, 2008

First Submitted That Met QC Criteria

May 4, 2008

First Posted (Estimate)

May 6, 2008

Study Record Updates

Last Update Posted (Estimate)

May 27, 2013

Last Update Submitted That Met QC Criteria

May 24, 2013

Last Verified

November 1, 2012

More Information

Terms related to this study

Keywords

Additional Relevant MeSH Terms

Other Study ID Numbers

  • Pro00000118

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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