ITSMyAsthma RCT
Research type
Research Study
Full title
Improving teenage self-management of asthma: Randomised Controlled Trial
IRAS ID
183489
Contact name
Graham Roberts
Contact email
Sponsor organisation
University Hospital Southampton NHS Foundation Trust
Duration of Study in the UK
1 years, 10 months, 2 days
Research summary
Asthma is one of the commonest long term conditions affecting adolescents. Many have poor control and impaired quality of life despite the availability of modern treatments. Our previous research has demonstrated that adolescents with asthma communicate poorly with healthcare professionals (HCP) and are often not engaged in self managing their condition. This is likely to underlie their poor asthma control and suggests that HCPs need to take a different approach to this group. Previous research suggests that a self efficacy (ability to self-manage specific tasks) focused approach might be more effective than current approaches. In our previous study we interviewed teenagers to find out what they thought were the barriers and facilitators to self-management of asthma. We have used this information to develop a teenage asthma toolkit, designed to support healthcare professionals to empower teenagers to self-manage their asthma. We have also developed a prototype Adolescent Asthma Self-Efficacy questionnaire designed to measure teenagers confidence in self-managing their asthma. The self efficacy questionnaire will be used in the toolkit to highlight areas where the teenager with asthma might benefit from additional support. Their HCPs will then be able to utilise the behavioural interventions that are most helpful to their patient. The toolkit is therefore tailored to individual patients. This study, funded by Asthma UK, will begin by validating the new self-efficacy questionnaire. The second part of the study will assess the efficacy of the new teenage asthma toolkit, in a small RCT. Randomisation will take place at the level of participating clinics. Clinics taking part in the trial will be randomised to the new adolescent intervention or standard care. Participants under the care of the healthcare professionals in these clinics will be allocated to intervention or control, as per this randomisation.
REC name
North West - Liverpool Central Research Ethics Committee
REC reference
15/NW/0551
Date of REC Opinion
23 Jun 2015
REC opinion
Favourable Opinion