Intergenerational Mobile Technology Opportunities Program (IMTOP) in Taiwan
试验速览
- 阶段
- 不适用
- 状态
- 已完成
- 入组人数
- 617
- 试验地点
- 2
- 主要终点
- Patient survey
研究概览
简要总结
The primary purpose of the study is to understand the potential of mobile computing technology to improve chronic disease self-management, quality of life, and health outcomes of older adults to prevent or alleviate future disabilities. Thus, the study will design, develop, and test an intervention to motivate and train seniors to use the technology, and conduct a trial to evaluate its effect. This innovative intervention will deploy young generation (age 18 to 30) volunteers to provide mobile technology training, access, and support to older adults (aged 55 and above) with type 2 diabetes in Taiwan. Hence, a secondary purpose of the study is to understand the effects of the volunteering experience on the values, characters, and health awareness in the young generation. This program, called the Intergenerational Mobile Technology Opportunities Program (IMTOP), will help older adults with type 2 diabetes acquire skills to use the Internet, World Wide Web (WWW), applications (or "apps"), and basic computing via mobile tablet devices. These skills will give participants access to resources and tools to improve health and mental health, reduce social isolation, and increase social engagement, as well as meet their individual life goals. The course will use young volunteers to deliver the tablet training. The training course will be offered as small-group sessions over an 8-week period (for up to 16 hours of training) at a hospital site, plus young volunteers' technical support and problem solving for up to 4 weeks after the training sessions are completed. Using college students to serve as volunteer trainers for teaching mobile technology, the research also aims to understand not only how the intergenerational interactions help the older adults learn the technology and improve health, but also how the tutoring experiences make impact on the young adults' skills and perspectives that will help them in their future careers and in the development of their characters. This research study will recruit three hundred fifty (350) patients from the collaborating hospitals, including two hundred fifty (250) patients from Taipei Tzu Chi Hospital and one hundred (100) patients from Hualien Tzu Chi Hospital. An estimate of 140 students in colleges and universities in Taiwan (100 volunteers in Taipei hospital and 40 volunteers in Hualien hospital) between the age of 18 and 30 will be recruited to serve as volunteer instructors to teach older adults to use tablets and to provide technical support services. Moreover, another group of 140 young adults, also age 18 to 30, will be recruited from universities to serve as the comparison group to the volunteers in intervention group. The course objectives are to guide older patients with Type 2 diabetes to use technology to obtain diabetes-related medical information, learn to record and control their physiological data via technology, promote intergenerational communication, enhance the convenience in life, and improve social life and mental health through technology tools such as the Internet, social media, online health education resources, instructional videos and so on. It is hoped to further slow down degradation, promote health and prolong life.
详细描述
The research design is a randomized waitlist control trial. Patients will be randomly assigned to the immediate intervention group or 4-month waitlist control group. The former will immediately join the tablet computer courses, while the later will wait for four (4) months before starting their courses. The follow-up period for patients will be one (1) year after the start of courses. Patient assessments will include baseline and follow-up assessments of health behaviors, functional status, health conditions, and social interactions and engagements, plus technology use and acceptance. Baseline assessment will be conducted at recruitment for all patients, and for waitlist control group again at the beginning of the course. Follow-up assessments will be conducted at four (4) months, eight (8) months, and twelve (12) months after the start date of the courses. Young volunteers will also be assessed to understand their experiences in the volunteering services and any impact from this experience. The assessments will be conducted at the baseline, during the courses, and two (2) months and four (4) months after the beginning of the courses. In addition, a group of 140 young adults will be recruited from universities to serve as the comparison group and will be asked to complete the assessment survey at baseline, two (2) months, and four (4) months later.
For older adults:
Patients who meet inclusion criteria will be referred by doctors in the metabolism and endocrinology department of the two hospitals to recruiters and will be randomly assigned to immediate intervention group and waitlist control group. The aim of the comparison is to assess the potential effects of mobile technology program with intergenerational interaction on patients' technology use, self-efficacy, self-management behavior, and social engagement, and whether it results in less social isolation and health care utilization, improved health and mental health status, and greater quality of life.
Recruitment procedure:
- Tzu Chi diabetes health educators will recruit patients with type 2 diabetes and screen them for eligibility. The health educators will complete a patient contact card for each patient that they screen for eligibility. If eligible, the health educators will explain the study to the patients and ask for their interest to participate. Interested patients will be referred to an IMTOP study recruiter. The recruiter will collect all patient contact cards and completed screeners from the health educators.
- The study recruiters on site in the hospital will obtain the informed consent from the eligible and interested patients. When the patients sign the study consent, the recruiter will write on the patient contact card the patient ID next to Study Participation Status - Enrolled, and complete the patient contact card.
- The recruiter will then conduct the baseline interview. Baseline interview can be done face to face or via telephone if patient prefers.
- Patient's study group (immediate intervention or wait list control group) will be randomly assigned at the study's Qualtrics database after baseline interview is complete.
- All recruitment paper, if any, will be sent to the project manager to file on a locked cabinet.
- The patients who are randomized to the immediate intervention group will be assigned to the training course as soon as a course is available. The patients randomized to the waitlist control group will need to wait for six months to serve as no intervention control, and then assigned to the training course.
研究设计
- 研究类型
- Interventional
- 分配方式
- Non Randomized
- 干预模型
- Parallel
- 主要目的
- Health Services Research
- 盲法
- None
入排标准
- 年龄范围
- 55 Years 至 —（Adult, Older Adult）
- 性别
- All
- 接受健康志愿者
- 否
入选标准
- •Older adult subjects inclusion criteria are:
- •current Taipei or Hualien Tzu Chi patients
- •aged equal to or greater than 55 years
- •having a current diagnosis of type 2 diabetes mellitus with duration of diagnosis at least 6 months
- •having the ability of reading Chinese newspaper
- •normal eye-hand coordination
- •being able to regularly attend the IMTOP training course
- •understanding Mandarin (listening, speaking, reading, and writing).
- •having a working telephone at home or a cellular phone.
- •Younger adult subjects inclusion criteria are:
- •age between 18 and 30
- •having basic levels of verbal, interpersonal communication, and computer skills and commitment in voluntary works for approximately 50 hours during the period of intervention.
排除标准
- •Older adult subjects exclusion criteria are:
- •a score of 2 or greater on the CAGE 4M alcohol assessment;
- •having schizophrenia, schizoaffective disorder, manic-depressive, or needing lithium;
- •cognitive impairment precluding ability to give informed consent or participating in the intervention, i.e., SPMSQ score of 4 or more errors.
- •Younger adult subjects exclusion criteria are:
- •age less than 18 or above 30
- •being unfamiliar with computer
- •being unable to commit 50 hours during the period of intervention
研究组 & 干预措施
Immediate intervention group
A randomized, waitlist controlled trial with three hundred fifty older adult subjects with type 2 diabetes and 280 young adult subjects will be conducted in Taipei Tzu Chi Hospital and Hualien Tzu Chi Hospital in Taiwan. The patients who are randomized to the immediate intervention group will be assigned to the training course as soon as a course is available.
The intervention is a 12-week program which consists of 8-week training sessions followed by 4-week consultation service for technical support. Both will be provided by the young volunteers with a lead instructor.
干预措施: Intergenerational Mobile Technology Opportunities Program (Behavioral)
Waitlist control group
The patients randomized to the waitlist control group will need to wait for four months to serve as no intervention control, and then assigned to the training course.
干预措施: Intergenerational Mobile Technology Opportunities Program (Behavioral)
结局指标
主要结局
Patient survey
时间窗: One year
The survey collects data from patients include demographic characteristics, relationship with children and grandchildren, physical health (IADL) and mental health status, self-management behaviors, health care utilization and satisfaction, health literacy, self-efficacy, usage of app, social engagement, attitudes toward young adults and quality of life.
Young students survey
时间窗: Four month
The survey will collect data about demographic characteristics, level of empathy, citizenship behavior, time management skills, altruism value, purpose of life, attitudes toward older adults, relationship with grandparents and career development.
次要结局
未报告次要终点
研究者
Shinyi Wu
Associate Professor
University of Southern California