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An Intervention to Improve Adolescent Headache Self-management

Not Applicable
Completed
Conditions
Headache
Pain
Interventions
Behavioral: pain self management app on smartphone
Registration Number
NCT02475005
Lead Sponsor
Stephen F Butler, PhD
Brief Summary

The purpose of this study is to test the efficacy of a new app to help adolescents with chronic or reoccurring headaches self manage pain.

Detailed Description

Headaches dramatically affect adolescents' overall functioning and quality of life. We have developed a highly engaging mobile-based program that will help adolescents to make connections between behaviors and symptoms, and to ultimately improve functioning and quality of life. The mobile-based program will provide a state of the art pain tracker, a variety of coping strategies, and information about self-management of symptoms. This app will offer a maximally engaging way to help adolescents track their pain, make connections between lifestyle and pain, and learn key self-management skills.

The study involves the participant being randomized into either the experimental group, where he/she will be using this mobile application to track their headache symptoms, or the control group, where he/she will receive headache treatment as usual; the control group will not be using an app for this study. The intervention will last for two months.

Participants will be assessed at baseline, at 2-months post baseline, at 3-months post baseline, and at 6-months post baseline. All participants will be asked to complete online questionnaires about their headaches. We plan to enroll 144 adolescent participants with headaches, as well as one caregiver (meaning a parent/guardian) for each adolescent.

Recruitment & Eligibility

Status
COMPLETED
Sex
All
Target Recruitment
1200
Inclusion Criteria

Not provided

Exclusion Criteria

Not provided

Study & Design

Study Type
INTERVENTIONAL
Study Design
PARALLEL
Arm && Interventions
GroupInterventionDescription
Mobile self management app on smartphonepain self management app on smartphoneMobile self management app on smartphone
Primary Outcome Measures
NameTimeMethod
Change in pain coping at 2 months, 3 months, and 6 months post-baseline2 months, 3 months, 6 months

Measured by Pain Coping Questionnaire (PCQ) - Reid et al., 1998

Change in quality of life at 2 months, 3 months, and 6 months post-baseline2 months, 3 months, 6 months

Measured by PedMIDAS - Hershey et al., 2001

Change in headache intensity at 2 months, 3 months, and 6 months post-baseline2 months, 3 months, 6 months

"In the past 7 days, how would you rate your headache pain on average..." from 0-no pain to 10-worst possible pain

Change in headache frequency at 2 months, 3 months, and 6 months post-baseline2 months, 3 months, 6 months

On how many days during the past 30 days have you had a headache? How many days in the past 30 were you completely headache free?"

Secondary Outcome Measures
NameTimeMethod
Change in pain self-efficacy at 2 months, 3 months, and 6 months post-baseline2 months, 3 months, 6 months

Measured by Pain Self-Efficacy Scale - Burch, Tsao, et al., 2006

Change in school absenteeism at 2 months, 3 months, and 6 months post-baseline2 months, 3 months, 6 months

Ask caregivers: "How many full school days did your child miss in the past 30 days due to headaches?"

Change in physical and psychosocial functioning at at 2 months, 3 months, and 6 months post-baseline2 months, 3 months, 6 months

Measured by parent report version of the PedsQL 4.0 (Varni et al., 1999)

Change in health care utilization at 2 months, 3 months, and 6 months post-baseline2 months, 3 months, 6 months

Measured by asking caregiver to report information such as the following:

* How many days in the past 30 days did his/her child see a healthcare provider for his/her headaches?

* What types of treatment (including medications) has his/her child received for headaches in the past 30 days?

Trial Locations

Locations (1)

Inflexxion

🇺🇸

Newton, Massachusetts, United States

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