A qualitative study on the use of mobile-based intervention for perinatal depression among perinatal mothers in rural Bihar, India

BACKGROUND

Perinatal depression (PND) is one of the most common psychiatric illnesses in women, with a prevalence around 22% in India. Leveraging mobile-based technologies could help in the prevention and treatment of perinatal depression even in remote places. Understanding the experiences and barriers of using such technology interventions by perinatal mothers could help in the better design and in delivery of these interventions. We aimed to study the experiences of the perinatal women using a mobile phone-based intervention, Interactive Voice Response System (IVRS), for the prevention and management of perinatal depression in a rural district of Bihar, India.

MATERIALS AND METHODS

A total of 12 in-depth interviews (IDIs) and one focus group discussion (FGD) with eight participants were conducted with perinatal mothers using the mobile-based IVRS to explore the experiences and perspectives of women receiving mobile phone-based interventions for the treatment of PND. Thematic analysis was done to identify major themes.

RESULTS

Five major themes emerged from the study around accessibility, usability, community participation, cost and preference to either intervention. Women found the mobile-based intervention useful as it made them feel lighter. They considered mental health as a health issue and wanted help to address their problems. They became familiar with terms like anxiety, depression, helplessness and burden and bean using them in their conversations. The patients used therapeutic strategies such as breathing, coping and relaxation. They even agreed to take up sessions for their peer group.

CONCLUSION

Women in rural Bihar seemed satisfied with the technology-based intervention. It has made mental health issues more visible and acceptable even in the rural hinterlands of Bihar.

Design and Rationale for the Deep South Interactive Voice Response System-Supported Active Lifestyle Study: Protocol for a Randomized Controlled Trial

BACKGROUND

The rates of physical inactivity and related cancer incidence and mortality are disproportionately high in the Deep South region in the United States, a rural, medically underserved region with a large African American population compared with the rest of the nation. Given this region's lower rates of literacy and internet access, interactive voice response (IVR) system-automated telephone-based interventions have the potential to help overcome physical activity intervention barriers (literacy, internet access, costs, and transportation) but have yet to be extended to rural, underserved populations, such as in the Deep South. Thus, extensive formative research is being conducted to develop and beta test the Deep South IVR System-Supported Active Lifestyle intervention in preparation for dissemination in rural Alabama counties.

OBJECTIVE

This paper aims to describe the design and rationale of an ongoing efficacy trial of the Deep South IVR System-Supported Active Lifestyle intervention.

METHODS

A two-arm randomized controlled trial will be conducted to compare a 12-month physical activity intervention versus a wait-list control condition in 240 underactive adults from 6 rural Alabama counties. The Deep South IVR System-Supported Active Lifestyle intervention is based on the Social Cognitive Theory and includes IVR-automated physical activity-related phone counseling (daily in months 0-3, twice weekly in months 4-6, and weekly in months 7-12) and support from local rural county coordinators with the University of Alabama O'Neal Comprehensive Cancer Center Community Outreach and Engagement Office. The primary outcome is weekly minutes of moderate- to vigorous-intensity physical activity (7-day physical activity recall; accelerometry) at baseline, 6 months, 12 months, and 18 months. Rural Active Living Assessments will be conducted in each rural county to assess walkability, assess recreational amenities, and inform future environment and policy efforts.

RESULTS

This study was funded in March 2019 and approved by the institutional review board of the University of Alabama at Birmingham in April 2019. As of February 2020, start-up activities (hiring and training staff and purchasing supplies) were completed. Study recruitment and assessments began in September 2020 and are ongoing. As of February 2021, a total of 43 participants have been enrolled in Dallas County, 42 in Sumter County, and 51 in Greene County.

CONCLUSIONS

IVR-supported phone counseling has great potential for addressing physical activity barriers (eg, culture, literacy, cost, or transportation) and reducing related rural health disparities in this region.

TRIAL REGISTRATION

ClinicalTrials.gov NCT03903874; https://clinicaltrials.gov/ct2/show/NCT03903874.

INTERNATIONAL REGISTERED REPORT IDENTIFIER (IRRID)

DERR1-10.2196/29245.

Satisfaction With an Interactive Voice Response System and Symptom Management Toolkit Intervention to Improve Adherence in Patients Prescribed an Oral Anticancer Agent

OBJECTIVES

To describe patient satisfaction with an interactive voice response (IVR) system to assess adherence and symptom management in patients newly prescribed an oral anticancer agent (OAA).

SAMPLE & SETTING

Patients prescribed a new OAA were recruited from six comprehensive cancer centers in the United States.

METHODS & VARIABLES

Cross-sectional analysis and descriptive statistics were used to summarize patient demographics and satisfaction with the IVR system and symptom management toolkit.

RESULTS

Participants had a mean age of 61.82 years, and gastrointestinal cancer was most prevalent. Participants were either "very" or "highly" satisfied with the IVR weekly calling system to assess symptoms, the IVR system daily OAA adherence reminders, and the symptom management toolkit.

IMPLICATIONS FOR NURSING

Nurses often triage patient-reported issues with OAAs. Nurses are well positioned to lead IVR system symptom management interventions and to be actively involved in the development, implementation, and dissemination of IVR technologies through research and practice.

Patient engagement with a mobile web-based telemonitoring system for heart failure self-management: a pilot study

Background

Intensive remote monitoring programs for congestive heart failure have been successful in reducing costly readmissions, but may not be appropriate for all patients. There is an opportunity to leverage the increasing accessibility of mobile technologies and consumer-facing digital devices to empower patients in monitoring their own health outside of the hospital setting. The iGetBetter system, a secure Web- and telephone-based heart failure remote monitoring program, which leverages mobile technology and portable digital devices, offers a creative solution at lower cost.

Objective

The objective of this pilot study was to evaluate the feasibility of using the iGetBetter system for disease self-management in patients with heart failure.

Methods

This was a single-arm prospective study in which 21 ambulatory, adult heart failure patients used the intervention for heart failure self-management over a 90-day study period. Patients were instructed to take their weight, blood pressure, and heart rate measurements each morning using a WS-30 bluetooth weight scale, a self-inflating blood pressure cuff (Withings LLC, Issy les Moulineaux, France), and an iPad Mini tablet computer (Apple Inc, Cupertino, CA, USA) equipped with cellular Internet connectivity to view their measurements on the Internet. Outcomes assessed included usability and satisfaction, engagement with the intervention, hospital resource utilization, and heart failure-related quality of life. Descriptive statistics were used to summarize data, and matched controls identified from the electronic medical record were used as comparison for evaluating hospitalizations.

Results

There were 20 participants (mean age 53 years) that completed the study. Almost all participants (19/20, 95%) reported feeling more connected to their health care team and more confident in performing care plan activities, and 18/20 (90%) felt better prepared to start discussions about their health with their doctor. Although heart failure-related quality of life improved from baseline, it was not statistically significant (P=.55). Over half of the participants had greater than 80% (72/90 days) weekly and overall engagement with the program, and 15% (3/20) used the interactive voice response telephone system exclusively for managing their care plan. Hospital utilization did not differ in the intervention group compared to the control group (planned hospitalizations P=.23, and unplanned hospitalizations P=.99). Intervention participants recorded shorter average length of hospital stay, but no significant differences were observed between intervention and control groups (P=.30).

Conclusions

This pilot study demonstrated the feasibility of a low-intensive remote monitoring program leveraging commonly used mobile and portable consumer devices in augmenting care for a fairly young population of ambulatory patients with heart failure. Further prospective studies with a larger sample size and within more diverse patient populations is necessary to determine the effect of mobile-based remote monitoring programs such as the iGetBetter system on clinical outcomes in heart failure.

Exploration of an automated approach for receiving patient feedback after outpatient acute care visits

BACKGROUND

To improve and learn from patient outcomes, particularly under new care models such as Accountable Care Organizations and Patient-Centered Medical Homes, requires establishing systems for follow-up and feedback.

OBJECTIVE

To provide post-visit feedback to physicians on patient outcomes following acute care visits.

DESIGN

A three-phase cross-sectional study [live follow-up call three weeks after acute care visits (baseline), one week post-visit live call, and one week post-visit interactive voice response system (IVRS) call] with three patient cohorts was conducted. A family medicine clinic and an HIV clinic participated in all three phases, and a cerebral palsy clinic participated in the first two phases. Patients answered questions about symptom improvement, medication problems, and interactions with the healthcare system.

PATIENTS

A total of 616 patients were included: 142 from Phase 1, 352 from Phase 2 and 122 from Phase 3.

MAIN MEASURES

Primary outcomes included: problem resolution, provider satisfaction with the system, and comparison of IVRS with live calls made by research staff.

KEY RESULTS

During both live follow-up phases, at least 96% of patients who were reached completed the call compared to only 48% for the IVRS phase. At baseline, 98 of 113 (88%) patients reported improvement, as well as 167 of 196 (85%) in the live one-week follow-up. In the one-week IVRS phase, 25 of 39 (64%) reported improvement. In all phases, the majority of patients in both the improved and unimproved groups had not contacted their provider or another provider. While 63% of providers stated they wanted to receive patient feedback, they varied in the extent to which they used the feedback reports.

CONCLUSIONS

Many patients who do not improve as expected do not take action to further address unresolved problems. Systematic follow-up/feedback mechanisms can potentially identify and connect such patients to needed care.

Eluxadoline benefits patients with irritable bowel syndrome with diarrhea in a phase 2 study

BACKGROUND & AIMS

Simultaneous agonism of the μ-opioid receptor and antagonism of the δ-opioid receptor can reduce abdominal pain and diarrhea in patients with irritable bowel syndrome with diarrhea (IBS-D) without constipating side effects. We evaluated the efficacy and safety of a minimally absorbed, μ-opioid receptor agonist and δ-opioid receptor antagonist (eluxadoline) in a phase 2 study in patients with IBS-D.

METHODS

We randomly assigned 807 patients to groups that received oral placebo twice daily or 5, 25, 100, or 200 mg oral eluxadoline for 12 weeks. The primary end point was clinical response at week 4, defined by a mean reduction in daily pain score from baseline of ≥ 30%, and of at least 2 points on 0-10 scale, as well as a stool consistency score of 3 or 4 on the Bristol Stool Scale (1-7) for at least 66% of daily diary entries during that week.

RESULTS

Significantly more patients receiving 25 mg (12.0%) or 200 mg (13.8%) eluxadoline met the primary end point of clinical response than patients given placebo (5.7%; P < .05). Patients receiving eluxadoline at 100 mg and 200 mg also had greater improvements in bowel movement frequency and urgency, global symptoms, quality of life, and adequate relief assessments (P < .05). Additionally, patients receiving 100 mg (28.0%) or 200 mg (28.5%) eluxadoline were significantly more likely than those receiving placebo (13.8%; P < .005) to meet the US Food and Drug Administration response end point during the full 12 weeks of the study. Eluxadoline was well tolerated with a low incidence of constipation.

CONCLUSIONS

In a phase 2 study of the mixed μ-opioid receptor agonist/δ-opioid receptor antagonist eluxadoline vs placebo in patients with IBS-D, patients given eluxadoline were significantly more likely to be clinical responders, based on a composite of improvement in abdominal pain and stool consistency. Further study of eluxadoline is warranted to assess its potential as a treatment for IBS-D.

Identifying patients with post-discharge care problems using an interactive voice response system

INTRODUCTION

Adverse events (AEs) are poor outcomes caused by medical care. They occur in 20% of medical patients following hospital discharge. We designed an interactive voice response system (IVRS) with the intent of identifying patients who might be experiencing an AE following discharge or were at risk of developing one.

OBJECTIVES

We determined the proportion of post-discharge patients requiring an intervention after identifying potential problems using the IVRS, the relationship between IVRS responses and AE occurrence, and patients' opinions of the IVRS call.

METHODS

We studied patients discharged from the general medical service of an academic hospital. The IVRS called patients 2 days post-discharge and asked three questions to determine the need for nurse follow-up. We contacted patients 30 days later to elicit AE status and perceptions of the IVRS.

RESULTS

Our cohort consisted of 270 elderly patients [median 64 years (IQR 50-76)] with multiple co-morbidities. Responses to the IVRS identified 57 patients (21%, 95% CI 17%-27%) for follow-up. When contacted by a nurse, 25 patients (9%, 95% CI 6%-13%) actually required an intervention. At 30-day follow-up, AEs occurred in 33 patients (12%, 95% CI 8%-17%). Only three AEs (9%) were identified by the IVRS; the remainder occurred before or after the IVRS call. Patients remembering the IVRS call found it easy to use (97%), and a minority would prefer a person to call (8%).

CONCLUSION

An IVRS-based method of monitoring was acceptable to patients and identified a significant proportion requiring changes in management. However, the method identified only a minority of AEs. To have a significant improvement in care, this method will need to be combined with other interventions.

Adaptive and longitudinal pharmaceutical care instruction using an interactive voice response/text-to-speech system

OBJECTIVES

To develop a course structure that would more closely simulate the actual provision of pharmaceutical care.

DESIGN

An interactive voice response/text-to-speech system (hardware and software) for obtaining patient data was designed and used in a pharmaceutical care laboratory. Students called the system to collect data, listen to progress notes, make recommendations, and update the pharmaceutical care plan for virtual patients. Laboratory time was utilized to evaluate patient progress and respond to recommendations as well as to identify and solve drug-related problems.

ASSESSMENT

Students' recorded communications with the system and completed care plans were evaluated and a competency-based final examination was administered. Peer evaluations and course evaluations were administered.

CONCLUSION

This innovative approach challenged students and promoted interactive learning. Student evaluations indicated we achieved our objective of creating a course that more closely simulated the actual provision of pharmaceutical care.