Testing a Measurement Feedback App to Improve Data Quality, Supervision & Outcomes in Behavioral Health

Official title

RCT of a Measurement Feedback App to Improve Data Quality, Supervision & Outcomes in Behavioral Health

Overview

The goal of this clinical trial is to test whether a smartphone-based data collection and feedback application ("Footsteps") improves the quality of behavioral data collected by one-to-one aides and leads to better youth mental health outcomes in school-aged youth (ages 4-17) who receive one-to-one support in schools. The main questions it aims to answer are: 1. Does the Footsteps app improve aides' data collection quality (i.e., consistency, timeliness, and completeness)? 2. Does Footsteps use lead to improved youth behavioral health outcomes (e.g., SDQ, YTP scores)? 3. Does Footsteps improve communication and supervision processes between aides and clinical supervisors? Researchers will compare aides using Footsteps to those using a "data collection only" control app to see if Footsteps leads to higher quality data collection, enhanced supervisory communication, and better youth outcomes. Participants will: * Use either Footsteps or a control app to record de-identified data on one client's behaviors and skills over 12 weeks * Complete biweekly online surveys about data collection experiences, youth progress, and aide-supervisor communication * Participate in a virtual intake and post-trial meeting * (For a subset) Participate in a 30-45 minute qualitative interview about their experience using the app

Interventions

• Behavioral Behavioral economics strategies
  Behavioral economics features designed to increase motivation to collect data and ease of data collection on the electronic platform.
• Device Electronic platform
  Electronic platform to collect data

Primary outcome measures

• Strengths and Difficulties Questionnaire total score [Time frame: Assessed monthly (Baseline; Weeks 4, 8, and 12)]
• Data collection consistency [Time frame: Assessed throughout 12-week trial]
• Data collection timeliness [Time frame: Assessed throughout 12-week trial]

Secondary outcome measures (2)

• Data collection completeness [Time frame: Assessed throughout 12-week trial]
• Youth Top Problems [Time frame: Assessed biweekly, at baseline through 12-week trial]

Eligibility criteria

Inclusion criteria

• Aides must be working with at least one client in school who meets the following criteria: 1) between 3-17 years, 2) has a diagnosis associated with a challenging behavior (e.g., autism spectrum disorder, attention deficit hyperactivity disorder, oppositional defiant disorder) as indicated on their treatment plan, and 3) receiving 1:1 aide support.
• Supervisors must be employed by a community behavior health agency and supervise a participating aide. The investigators will recruit supervisors in dyads and not triads (i.e., no supervisors with two \[or more\] aides) to ensure there are 30 supervisor-aide dyads in total).

Exclusion criteria

• Aides who participated in the pilot trial of the Footsteps will be excluded from participating to recruit a sample naïve to Footsteps and the control app.

Criteria are shown verbatim from the registry (in English). Final eligibility is always assessed by the study center.

Healthy volunteers: Yes

Study design

Allocation

Randomized

Model

Parallel assignment

Masking

Open label

Primary purpose

Treatment

Study locations

United States · 1 center

• University of Pennsylvania — Philadelphia

Publications

• Nuske HJ, Buck J, Ramesh B, Becker-Haimes EM, Zentgraf K, Mandell DS. Making Progress Monitoring Easier and More Motivating: Developing a Client Data Collection App Incorporating User-Centered Design and Behavioral Economics Insights. Soc Sci (Basel). 2022 Mar;11(3):106. doi: 10.3390/socsci11030106. Epub 2022 Mar 3. PMID 35496358

Identifiers

NCT: NCT07042347 · 855228 · R01MH136153

Primary sources (government registries)

• ClinicalTrials.gov (US NIH)

View this study on ClinicalTrials.gov ↗