A Comparative Trial of Improving Care for Underserved Asian Americans Infected With HBV

Asian Americans have the highest incidence, mortality and prevalence rates of hepatocellular carcinoma (HCC) among all U.S. racial and ethnic groups. The goal of this study is to investigate the efficacy of a Patient Navigator-led mobile phone text Messaging Intervention (PNMI) in improving hepatitis B follow-up care management for Asian Americans with chronic hepatitis B infection through a randomized controlled trial.

Asian Americans have the highest incidence, mortality and prevalence rates of hepatocellular carcinoma (HCC) among all U.S. racial and ethnic groups. Inadequate chronic hepatitis B (CHB) monitoring and care are also likely to contribute to poorer outcomes and increased healthcare costs. The goal of this study is to investigate the efficacy of a Patient Navigator-led mobile phone text Messaging Intervention (PNMI) in improving hepatitis B follow-up care management for Asian Americans with chronic hepatitis B infection through a randomized controlled trial. The primary outcome of the study is Asian CHB patient adherence (measured as "having seen a doctor for CHB monitoring") to hepatitis B (HBV) monitoring guidelines at 6-month and 12-month assessments post-intervention. Patient partners and stakeholders were engaged in all study stages. The findings of this study provided unique and promising opportunities for broadly disseminating and implementing the evidence-based intervention in the real-world practice, thus further preventing chronic liver diseases and reducing health disparities among high-risk underserved populations.

eligible patients received patient navigator led plus mobile phone text messaging intervention(PNMI) or standard care.

Eligible patients received patient navigator led plus mobile phone text messaging intervention (PNMI) or standard care. Bilingually trained patient navigators were recruited from our existing patient navigator training network, received intensive training on HBV prevention, diagnosis and treatment management, and served as a liaison with respective clinical partners. The PNMI intervention offered three education sessions on HBV management and weekly CHB patient-designed educational phone-based text messages for five weeks.

Change of the Rates of Participants Who Adherent to Recommended Clinical Care for the Monitoring of Chronic HBV Infection

The primary outcome is adherence to recommended clinical care for the monitoring of chronic HBV infection, specifically: 1) whether they visited doctors for their CHB, and 2) whether they received a blood test every 6 months such as alanine transaminase (ALT). All primary outcome measures were assessed at both the 6-month and 12-month follow-up surveys.

Inclusion Criteria: self-identified Chinese, Korean and Vietnamese ethnicity age 18 and above accessible by telephone with text message feature presence in the same geographic study area for a period of one year not enrolled in any chronic HBV adherence management intervention medically diagnosed chronic HBV infection with positive for hepatitis B surface antigen (HBsAg) for more than six months, and Never or non compliant with HBV monitoring guidelines. Exclusion Criteria: Patients were excluded from the study for the following conditions: diagnosed with cirrhosis, hepatocellular carcinoma, liver failure and liver cancer concurrent hepatitis C infection, and concurrent HIV infection