Health Intervention for Adolescents With Intellectual Disability

NCT00519311 | Completed

• 1 other identifier: 401647
• Study Type: interventional
• Target: 732
• Locations: 1 country
• Sites: 1

Brief Summary

People with intellectual disability die five to twenty years earlier than the general population. They also experience high levels of unrecognised disease and receive inadequate levels of health promotion or screening. Although they comprise 2.7% of our population (502 000 Australians) they receive scant, if any, attention in the health literature. The barriers to good health for this population include: communication difficulties, impaired recall of significant health information, and inadequate training of health service providers. This project attempts to minimise some of these barriers through the use of a Health Intervention Package. Use of this package has been evaluated in adults, but not in adolescents, with intellectual disability. The Health Intervention Package includes a comprehensive health review, called the Comprehensive Health Assessment Program (CHAP), which is performed by the adolescent's general practitioner, and a diary, the Ask diary, used to collect and store health information and to enhance health advocacy skills. We specifically aim to test if adolescents with intellectual disability using this package will receive better health screening and prevention (our primary outcomes). We also aim to test if using the package results in improved health advocacy by adolescents with intellectual disability and their parents (our secondary outcomes). The tool should also be acceptable to those involved (another secondary outcome). To investigate these aims we propose a clustered randomised controlled trial, a methodology we have used successfully in two previous trials. We will recruit 1000 adolescents (and their carers and teachers) in Special Education Schools and Special Education Units in Queensland. The CHAP health review aims to produce shorter-term benefits of improved health screening/promotion and disease detection, such as increased sensory testing, identification of vision or hearing impairment, and improved immunisation rates. The Ask diary is intended to produce longer-term benefits such as improved communication about health matters, improved health advocacy skills, improved health record keeping, and increased health maintenance.

Conditions

Vision Impairment; Hearing Impairment; Obesity

Keywords

Intellectual disability; Health promotion; RCT

Outcome Measures

Primary Outcomes (4)

• Level of health promotion

  Short term

• Disease prevention

  Short term

• Case finding activities (the identification of new disease)

  Short term

• Acceptability and usefulness of both the CHAP health review and the ASK Diary

  Long term

Secondary Outcomes (2)

• Appropriate health interventions

  Short term

• Ongoing maintenance of health care

  Long term

Study Arms (2)

School based health intervention

EXPERIMENTAL

Educational intervention based on health diary + health check

Behavioral: Health Intervention Package

Usual care

NO INTERVENTION

Normal school curriculum and usual medical care

Interventions

Health Intervention Package BEHAVIORAL

CHAP and Ask Diary

School based health intervention

Eligibility Criteria

• Age: 10 Years - 20 Years
• Sex: all
• Healthy Volunteers: Yes
• Age Groups: Child (0-17), Adult (18-64)

You may qualify if:

• Intellectual disability
• Aged \>= 10 years
• Attend Special School or Units of Special Education in Southern Queensland

You may not qualify if:

• No intellectual disability
• Not aged \>= 10 years
• Do not attend Special School or Unit of Special Education in Southern Queensland

Sponsors & Collaborators

• The University of Queensland: lead
• National Health and Medical Research Council, Australia: collaborator

Study Sites (1)

Queensland Centre for Intellectual and Developmental Disability, University of Queensland, Mater Hospital

Brisbane, Queensland, 4101, Australia

Location

Related Publications (7)

• Lennox N, Ware R, Carrington S, O'Callaghan M, Williams G, McPherson L, Bain C. Ask: a health advocacy program for adolescents with an intellectual disability: a cluster randomised controlled trial. BMC Public Health. 2012 Sep 7;12:750. doi: 10.1186/1471-2458-12-750.

  PMID: 22958354 BACKGROUND

• Doan T, Ware R, McPherson L, van Dooren K, Bain C, Carrington S, Einfeld S, Tonge B, Lennox N. Psychotropic medication use in adolescents with intellectual disability living in the community. Pharmacoepidemiol Drug Saf. 2014 Jan;23(1):69-76. doi: 10.1002/pds.3484. Epub 2013 Aug 8.

  PMID: 23929635 RESULT

• Carrington S., Lennox N., O'callaghan M., Mcpherson L. & Selva G. (2014) Promoting self-determination for better health and wellbeing for adolescents who have an intellectual disability. Australasian Journal of Special Education 38 (2), 93-114.

  RESULT

• Lennox N, McPherson L, Bain C, O'Callaghan M, Carrington S, Ware RS. A health advocacy intervention for adolescents with intellectual disability: a cluster randomized controlled trial. Dev Med Child Neurol. 2016 Dec;58(12):1265-1272. doi: 10.1111/dmcn.13174. Epub 2016 Jun 25.

  PMID: 27343021 RESULT

• McPherson L, Ware RS, Carrington S, Lennox N. Enhancing Self-Determination in Health: Results of an RCT of the Ask Project, a School-Based Intervention for Adolescents with Intellectual Disability. J Appl Res Intellect Disabil. 2017 Mar;30(2):360-370. doi: 10.1111/jar.12247. Epub 2016 Feb 12.

  PMID: 26868513 RESULT

• Krause S, Ware R, McPherson L, Lennox N, O'Callaghan M. Obesity in adolescents with intellectual disability: Prevalence and associated characteristics. Obes Res Clin Pract. 2016 Sep-Oct;10(5):520-530. doi: 10.1016/j.orcp.2015.10.006. Epub 2015 Nov 11.

  PMID: 26559898 RESULT

• Patton KA, Ware R, McPherson L, Emerson E, Lennox N. Parent-Related Stress of Male and Female Carers of Adolescents with Intellectual Disabilities and Carers of Children within the General Population: A Cross-Sectional Comparison. J Appl Res Intellect Disabil. 2018 Jan;31(1):51-61. doi: 10.1111/jar.12292. Epub 2016 Oct 4.

  PMID: 27704663 RESULT

MeSH Terms

Conditions

Vision Disorders; Hearing Loss; Obesity; Intellectual Disability

Condition Hierarchy (Ancestors)

Sensation Disorders; Neurologic Manifestations; Nervous System Diseases; Eye Diseases; Signs and Symptoms; Pathological Conditions, Signs and Symptoms; Hearing Disorders; Ear Diseases; Otorhinolaryngologic Diseases; Overweight; Overnutrition; Nutrition Disorders; Nutritional and Metabolic Diseases; Body Weight; Neurobehavioral Manifestations; Neurodevelopmental Disorders; Mental Disorders

Study Officials

• Nicholas G Lennox, MBBS

  The University of Queensland

  PRINCIPAL INVESTIGATOR

Study Design

• Study Type: interventional
• Phase: not applicable
• Allocation: RANDOMIZED
• Masking: SINGLE
• Who Masked: OUTCOMES ASSESSOR
• Purpose: SUPPORTIVE CARE
• Intervention Model: PARALLEL
• Sponsor Type: OTHER
• Responsible Party: PRINCIPAL INVESTIGATOR
• PI Title: Chief Investigator

Study Record Dates

• First Submitted: August 21, 2007
• First Posted: August 22, 2007
• Study Start: January 1, 2006
• Primary Completion: June 1, 2010
• Study Completion: June 1, 2010
• Last Updated: January 13, 2017

Record last verified: 2015-05

Locations

AU (1)