Εffectiveness of a Digital Social Intervention in Primary Care
Measuring Whether Promotion of a Digital Social Intervention by Primary Care Healthcare Professionals and Subsequent Engagement With Online Peer Support Improves Health and Well-being of Patients With Asthma and is Cost-effective: a Randomised Controlled Trial
Queen Mary University of London
600 participants
Feb 25, 2025
INTERVENTIONAL
Conditions
Summary
The goal of this study is to deliver a definitive randomised controlled trial to measure the effectiveness and assess cost-effectiveness of a digital social intervention for patients with asthma, composed of promoting engagement with online peer support in a primary care consultation, followed by engagement with online peer support for 12 months. The main questions/objectives this study aims to answer/address are: * Does promoting engagement with an online health community in primary care help people with troublesome asthma to experience fewer asthma symptoms? * To assess cost-effectiveness of the intervention (including quality of life, well-being, use of healthcare services etc); stakeholder satisfaction (patients and healthcare professionals) with the intervention; fidelity of protocol delivery; context in which positive outcomes can be triggered.
Eligibility
Inclusion Criteria5
- To participate in the study, participants will need to:
- Be adult asthma patients (aged 18 to 99) who have expressed their interest in digital social interventions in the recruitment survey.
- Report troublesome asthma (i.e. an ACT score of less than 20) in the recruitment survey).
- Be competent to consent for themselves, as determined by the healthcare professional delivering the consultation.
- There are no specific criteria for selecting participants for the exit interviews (a convenience sample of patients and clinicians will be used and recruitment will continue until data saturation).
Exclusion Criteria5
- Patients who are already members of the Asthma + Lung UK online health community or other asthma online health communities/Facebook groups (i.e. general use of social media will not prevent participation).
- Palliative or end of life patients.
- Patients receiving institutional long-term care (receiving total care in residential homes or living in nursing homes).
- Patients considered unsuitable to take part in the study by their general practitioners/nurses.
- There are no specific criteria for selecting participants for the exit interviews (a convenience sample of patients and clinicians will be used and recruitment will continue until data saturation).
Interventions
* Signposting to the online health community by explaining different sections of the website. * Introducing norms and values for passive (just reading) and active (writing posts) participation. * Motivation for engagement with the online health community, emphasising that it could be used ad hoc (e.g. when feeling unwell, or when they need information or emotional support). * Problem solving with respect to any difficulties/concerns. * Signing patients up to the online health community, by explaining terms and conditions. * Explaining the differences between posting publicly and privately (public posts are shared with third parties whereas private messages to other users are not shared). * Collection of baseline measures. Data will be entered into the study's online database. Patients will leave the consultation with a leaflet summarising all procedural matters in relation to signing up with the online health community and a reminder of their username and password.
Locations(5)
View Full Details on ClinicalTrials.gov
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NCT06849245