Understanding adherence to weekly growth hormone treatment
Research type
Research Study
Full title
Understanding adherence to weekly growth hormone treatment: A prospective, mixed methods study
IRAS ID
328296
Contact name
Professor Bashir Al-Hashimi
Contact email
Sponsor organisation
King’s College London
Duration of Study in the UK
2 years, 0 months, 1 days
Research summary
We know that many children prescribed daily injectable growth hormone treatment for growth hormone deficiency do not take all the doses they are prescribed, meaning that they don’t get the full potential benefit of treatment. The reasons behind this nonadherence are complex and include them not being able to take it (e.g. because the child or caregivers forget to administer the injections), or because they choose not to (e.g. because of injection pain). The aim of this project is to evaluate if patients take a new weekly injectable growth hormone deficiency (GHD) treatment as their doctor recommends and factors that influence how they use the treatment.
We will gather information about the experiences of 70 children (aged 3-16 years) with GHD prescribed a new weekly medication and/or their caregivers using both surveys and interviews to evaluate rates of medication taking, and barriers and facilitators to medication taking.
Potential participants will be asked if they are interested in taking part after they have been prescribed a new growth hormone treatment by a clinician involved in their routine care. Participants who have expressed interest in the study will then be contacted by a researcher with more information about the study and to obtain informed consent (and assent for child participants). Consenting participants will be sent a link to an online survey two weeks, 12 weeks and 24 weeks after the new prescription of weekly growth hormone treatment. If they would prefer to complete via telephone, a time will be arranged with the researcher to complete the survey over the phone. In the survey we will collect information about treatment experiences and behaviours using standardised scales. Six months after prescription, 25 patient-caregiver pairs will be re-contacted and if they consent, will be interviewed online or via telephone to explore adherence and nonadherence experiences in depth.
REC name
Yorkshire & The Humber - Bradford Leeds Research Ethics Committee
REC reference
24/YH/0174
Date of REC Opinion
22 Aug 2024
REC opinion
Further Information Favourable Opinion