Active clinical trials for "Multiple Chronic Conditions"

The overall goal of the research is to discover how to reduce chronic disease health disparities among older (ages 35-70) low-income African-American men more effectively. To achieve this goal, the investigators are conducting formative exploratory research with middle-aged, low-income African-American men; testing two versions of a novel community-developed intervention, MOCHA and MOCHA+ (where MOCHA+ is a modified version of the "standard" MOCHA program, modified to incorporate narrative communication strategies); and advancing the development of a Minority Stress Model through statistical modelling to test the relative contributions of hypothesized explanatory variables identified in the formative research phase of the project.

This study begins to look at ways nurses in primary care might help patients engage in Advance Care Planning and communicate their values and preferences to family and doctors.

The objectives of this project are to to build sustainable regional communities of Intellectual or Developmental Disabilities (IDD) stakeholders to provide ongoing input to research priorities, methodological processes, and relevant person-centered health outcomes; leverage existing Special Olympic infrastructure to nationally disseminate the toolkit in order to increase participation and engagement in research and improve health outcomes; conduct comparative effectiveness trials that incorporate people with IDD focusing on their research priorities.

Background: Persons living with chronic conditions often have decreased ability to perform Activities of Daily Living (ADL) tasks, stressing a need to develop and evaluate intervention programs addressing decreased ADL ability. Guided by the British Medical Research Council's guidance (MRC) on how to develop and evaluate complex interventions, the program "A Better everyday LifE" (ABLE), a home-based intervention program, was developed and feasibility tested. The current phase concerns a full-scale evaluation of the ABLE program including evaluation of effectiveness, processes and cost-effectiveness. Material and Methods: The design involves a randomized controlled trial, initiated with an internal pilot. The study will include eighty (n=80) home dwelling persons living with chronic conditions, experiencing problems performing ADL. Participants are randomized to either intervention (ABLE) or control (usual care). Co-primary outcomes are self-reported ADL ability measured using ADL-Questionnaire (ADL-Q) and observed ADL motor ability measured using Assessment of Motor and Process Skills (AMPS). Secondary outcomes are perceived satisfaction with ADL task performance measured using ADL-Q; observed ADL process ability measured using AMPS; and Goal Attainment measured using Goal-Attainment-Scaling (GAS). Data is collected at baseline, post intervention and six months after baseline. Process evaluation data are collected using registration forms and semi-structured qualitative interviews. The economic evaluation will be performed from a health care sector perspective with 6 months follow-up. Costs will be estimated based on micro costing and national registries. Effects will be Quality Adjusted Life Years and changes in AMPS ADL ability.

The overall aims of this project are to: 1) create a developmentally appropriate interactive educational website for adolescents called DigiKnowIt News: Teen, and 2) examine the feasibility of DigiKnowIt News: Teen in a small randomized control trial with adolescents.

The purpose of this study is to evaluate whether telemonitoring of frail patients with chronic diseases produces benefits in terms of reduced readmissions, improved health related quality of life, and improved health status. In addition, the trial evaluates the economic and organisational impact of the telemonitoring service and examines its acceptability by patients and health professionals.

This research is being done to learn whether services to the caregiver to provide emotional, instrumental and social support can improve quality of life and other outcomes. The Caregiver-Support program provides services that are not usually available to caregivers of persons with heart failure and other chronic conditions.

Background - There is a high potential for hospitalization prevention through: (i) a greater continuity of care, achieved by facilitating collaborative work among professionals at different levels of care, and (ii) improving the self-efficacy of patients. For both objectives, the support of appropriate information and communication technologies is essential. The study raises the hypothesis that an industry 4.0 system, Health-Circuit, based on communication technologies and intelligent collaboration, will facilitate a greater continuity of care and an improvement in patients' self-efficacy. Objective - Analysis of Health-Circuit's potential for improving the continuity of care and self-efficacy of chronic patients at risk of hospitalization. Material and methods - Controlled, single-blinded, randomized trial by primary care teams, with a 2:1 intervention-control ratio. The first phase of the study (September-November 2019) will be carried out in 75 patients from the primary care area of Barcelona Esquerra under the influence of Hospital Clínic of Barcelona (CAPSBE, 110k inhabitants). In the intervention group, the patients, and the corresponding healthcare professionals, will communicate and collaborate though Health-Circuit, while the control group will receive conventional treatment. In a second phase (beginning December 2019), the study will be extended to the entire healthcare area of Barcelona Esquerra (AISBE, 520k inhabitants). Expected results - From a clinical perspective, a reduction in the number of urgent face-to-face visits is expected at: (i) Hospital; (ii) Primary Care, or, (iii) Primary Care Emergency Centers, due to better continuity of care and greater self-efficacy of patients. However, the results sought in Phase I of the study will be, fundamentally: (i) the evaluation of the usability and acceptability of Health-Circuit for patients and professionals, and (ii) the analysis of the potential of the digital tool for the management of complex clinical processes with the help of intelligent bots. In phase II of the study, the central objectives will be (i) increase in the capacity to resolve events, and (ii) improvement of patients' self-efficacy.

Multiple chronic conditions are common and expensive among patients aged ≥65 and are associated with lower quality of life, poorer response to treatment, worse medical and psychiatric outcomes, higher mortality, and higher costs of care. The primary purpose of this study is to conduct a randomized clinical trial (RCT) to examine the effects of ElderTree --a web-based intervention--on health outcomes and healthcare use among older adults with several chronic health conditions, such as diabetes, high blood pressure, high cholesterol, COPD, BMI over 30, congestive heart failure, chronic kidney disease, arrhythmia/atrial fibrillation, chronic pain, arthritis. The investigator's hypothesis is that patients assigned to TAU+ElderTree will have better quality of life and fewer primary care visits than those assigned to TAU+Internet.

The purpose of this study is to test a home-based exergaming intervention designed to decrease frailty and fatigue and improve affective well-being, functional capacity, and immune function in individuals with advanced heart failure (HF) and multiple chronic conditions (MCC) prior to receiving either a left ventricular assist device (LVAD) or orthotopic heart transplantation (OHT). Prior to surgery, individuals with advanced HF/MCC experience a high symptom burden that often precludes them from participating in meaningful physical activity. Pre-surgical fitness programs have been used in other critically ill populations to improve function prior to surgery. Interactive gaming systems have been successfully used to engage other seriously ill adults in low-intensity physical activity. However, exergaming interventions have not yet been applied in individuals with advanced HF/MCC as prehabilitation prior to LVAD implantation or OHT. The investigators propose that a prehabilitation exergaming intervention will not only enhance pre-surgical outcomes but will also augment postoperative outcomes. This study is designed in two-phases. Phase 1 examines intervention feasibility and phase 2 is a pilot study with a two-group design. In phase 2, participants will be randomized to a usual care group or the exergaming intervention group. The exergaming group will participate in a low-intensity exergaming intervention and additional investigator-developed educational modules that will be delivered via the Nintendo Wii U exergaming system. The investigators will evaluate pre- and post-surgical frailty, fatigue, affective well-being, and immune function as primary outcomes. The investigators expect that participation in low intensity exergaming will improve these primary outcomes pre- and post-surgically, and decrease post-surgical complications and health care utilization. Investigator-developed modules will promote self-efficacy, self-regulation, and activation. This is the first study to apply low-intensity exergaming to a pre-operative advanced HF/MCC population. The successful application of this intervention has significant implications to the pre-operative conditioning of individuals with advanced HF/MCC prior to LVAD implantation or OHT.