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  • Pilot Project: Developing an App to H...

Pilot Project: Developing an App to Help Alaska Native and American Indian Patients with Depression Manage Their Condition

This project has results

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Results Summary and Professional Abstract

Results Summary

Results Summary 

PCORI funded the Pilot Projects to explore how to conduct and use patient-centered outcomes research in ways that can better serve patients and the healthcare community. Learn more.

Background

Depression is a long-lasting mental health condition that affects more than 350 million people worldwide. The majority of people who have depression have not been diagnosed, have not received treatment, or are not getting the best treatment.

Researchers want to understand how people with depression manage their condition and make decisions about care. This information can help doctors, patients, and families communicate better about signs of depression, managing symptoms, preferred types of treatment, staying on track with treatment, and getting the best response to treatment. New technologies such as apps for tablet computers may help patients, their families, and doctors to identify, manage, and monitor chronic conditions such as depression.

Project Purpose

This study developed an iPad app for use by Alaska Native and American Indian patients with depression, their families, and their doctors.

The researchers tested the app within a tribal health organization to see if the app had an effect on

  • Patients’ health
  • The health services patients use
  • Patients’ healthcare costs

Methods

First, the researchers interviewed patients, doctors, and local health leaders to figure out their understanding of depression and their preferences for treatment. Then, using what they learned from the interviews, the researchers developed an app to help manage and treat a patient’s depression. The researchers tested the app with 20 Alaska Native and American Indian patients to see if they thought it was easy to use and if it helped them manage their depression.

To test the app, the researchers randomly selected three primary care clinics in a tribally owned and operated healthcare system. Patients who were receiving treatment at these clinics were screened for depression. A total of 131 patients showed signs of depression. The clinics offered these patients the opportunity to use the app to help manage their depression. The research team compared their experiences with 263 other patients with depression who got regular treatment at other tribal clinics but did not use the app. Patients were in the study for six months. During that time, 19 patients who were using the app dropped out of the study.

The researchers collected information from patients such as age, gender, and whether they had health insurance. The researchers also collected health information such as whether the patient had multiple health problems and if the patient used different healthcare services. The researchers tested whether there were differences between the two groups in the frequency and kind of healthcare services used.

Findings

Researchers found that patients who had access to the app visited primary care doctors and behavioral health consultants less often than patients who did not have the app. However, patients in the two groups continued to visit the emergency department equally as often and received the same amount of medication for depression. In addition, patients in both groups had the same healthcare costs.

Limitations

The research team was not able to get enough information from testing the app to be sure about how useful it was to patients. The researchers used billing information from the three primary care clinics to look at healthcare costs. The billing information may not have included all costs. Although the test did not find differences in healthcare costs between groups, it might take longer than six months for such differences to appear.

Conclusion

Patients who used the app visited their doctors less often. The app may have helped patients with depression manage their condition so that they did not need to go to the doctor as often.

Sharing the Results

The research team plans to let clinics in the tribally owned health system use the app.

Professional Abstract

Professional Abstract 

PCORI funded the Pilot Projects to explore how to conduct and use patient-centered outcomes research in ways that can better serve patients and the healthcare community. Learn more.

Background

Depression, a recurrent, chronic, mental health condition, affects more than 350 million people worldwide. Depression is undiagnosed, untreated, and/or inadequately treated among the majority of those with the condition.

Understanding how patients engage in depression management decisions may help facilitate patient–provider and patient–family communication regarding symptom recognition and management; identify patient, family, and provider information needs; better match individual preferences and treatment needs; improve treatment adherence; and optimize treatment response. Health information technology is an important tool for patients, providers, and healthcare systems to identify, manage, and monitor chronic conditions like depression.

Project Purpose

The researchers developed, tested, and refined a stakeholder-centered decision-support tool for depression within a tribally owned and operated healthcare organization.

Study Design

The researchers used qualitative and quantitative methods to develop, test, and refine a stakeholder­ centered decision-support tool to improve communication and better incorporate the perspectives of Southcentral Foundation (SCF)'s stakeholders (e.g., customer-owners, providers, and leaders) into healthcare decisions. The three specific aims of this mixed-methods, prospective cohort study were as follows:

  • Specific Aim 1: Identify stakeholder understanding, preferences, and needs that influence depression treatment decisions in Alaska Native and American Indian (ANAI) individuals.
  • Specific Aim 2: Develop, pilot, and evaluate a stakeholder-centered decision-support tool to help translate and integrate evidence-based guidelines and stakeholder understanding, preferences, and needs into depression management decisions.
  • Specific Aim 3: Determine the impact of the stakeholder-centered decision-support tool on health, service utilization, and economic outcomes.

Participants, Interventions, Settings, and Outcomes

The study was conducted in three stages. An iterative search process commonly used in community-based participatory research and community engagement projects was used to identify stakeholder understanding, preferences, and needs in Specific Aim 1. The researchers used a purposive sampling strategy to recruit stakeholders for Aim 1(n = 38). They conducted semi-structured interviews with these stakeholders and used a thematic network analysis to identify common views across stakeholders. These views were presented to a steering committee for guidance on developing the decision support tool.

In Specific Aim 2, tool feasibility and acceptability was assessed with 20 customer-owners diagnosed with depression.

In Specific Aim 3, the decision-support tool was deployed to 131 ANAI adults who screened positive for depression in three randomly selected primary care clinics. Of these, three withdrew after the iPad-based shared decision-support tool crashed, one withdrew because of fatigue, one did not consent to medical record review, one was disenrolled due to ineligibility, and 13 were excluded because they were seen in both the control and intervention clinic.

The control group consisted of 263 ANAI adults who screened positive for depression in the treatment-as-usual condition during the same time period.

Data Analysis

Demographic and health factors included age, gender, marital status, insurance status (as a proxy for socioeconomic status), median income of residential ZIP Code, number of chronic physical conditions (e.g., cardiovascular disease, cancer, diabetes, epilepsy, obesity), and prior service utilization counts. A random effect intercept for the primary care clinic team accounted for correlation due to nesting and allowed for adjustments according to provider factors including primary care provider (PCP) age, PCP gender, PCP tenure with SCF, and PCP position type (physician, interim provider, midlevel practitioner (e.g., nurse practitioner, physician assistant), senior physician, or medical director). Researchers used multilevel models including: Poisson regression for count outcomes; zero-inflated Poisson regression for count outcomes with a high number of zero­counts; log-transformed linear regression; and Cox proportional hazards regression for time-to-event data.

Findings

Although few differences in univariable analyses were found, when demographics, healthcare system service utilization in the pre-period, diagnoses in the pre-period, and provider factors were accounted for as covariates in multilevel models, significant differences in healthcare system service utilization in the six month post-period were observed. Use of the tool decreased primary care utilization (RR 95% Cl: 0.51-0.88) and behavioral health consultant visits (RR 95% Cl: 0.13-0.52). Use of the tool did not affect emergency department (ED)/urgent care (UC) utilization (RR 95% Cl: 0.35-1.34), the number of depression medication dispenses (RR 95% Cl: 0.74-1.68), days-supply of depression medication (βlog 95% Cl: -2.73-2.76), or days to first depression medication refill for those previously dispensed medications (n = 186; RR 95% Cl: 0.46-1.71). The number of times screened with the Patient Health Questionnaire (PHQ)-9 in the follow-up period was significantly higher for those who utilized the tool in univariable analysis, but not statistically significant when adjusted for demographic and health factors (RR 95% Cl: 0.98-2.40). Healthcare service costs related to utilization, specifically primary care, behavioral health, and ED/UC charges, did not appear to be affected by tool administration. However, the six-month study time period may be too short to detect a difference, especially for ED/UC charges (p = 0.08).

Limitations

The evaluation period was shorter than anticipated because of delays in tool development. Providers often did not readminister the PHQ-9 at follow-up appointments to guide depression management. Moreover, documentation for those who did return to primary care for follow‑up was often limited to medical notes with limited search ability. Patients who felt better and did not return to the clinic for whatever reason were lost to follow up. Economic evaluation is based on billing data and may not represent the true cost to SCF's healthcare system.

Conclusions

Patient engagement and tailored electronic depression management resources may help guide healthcare management and resource allocation decisions. Although few statistically significant changes in patient health outcomes or healthcare system charges were found during the tool pilot period, observed changes in healthcare service utilization suggest that the tool may influence depression outcomes, service utilization, and healthcare costs.

Dissemination Activities

Through limited competition, PCORI awarded 25 of the 50 Pilot Projects up to $50,000 to support dissemination and implementation of their activities and findings through the PCORI Pilot Project Learning Network (PPPLN) funding. The deliverables listed below are a result of convenings and conferences supported by this funding, whose efforts align with the PCORI strategic goal of disseminating information and encouraging adoption of PCORI-funded research results.

Period: August 2015 to November 2015
Budget: $49,839

  • Created a web-tool with healthcare provider and community member feedback
  • Widely disseminated handout cards highlighting symptoms and treatment preference results were disseminated to eight primary care clinics
  • Created a Depression Toolkit that includes Media, IT, and Health components

Journal Articles

Related Articles

Journal Of Affective Disorders

Depression Management Interests among Alaska Native and American Indian Adults in Primary Care

Quality of Life Research

Engaging stakeholders to develop a depression management decision support tool in a tribal health system

Quality of Life Research

Engaging stakeholders to develop a depression management decision support tool in a tribal health system.

Project Details

Principal Investigator
Renee F. Robinson, RPH, MPH, PharmD
Project Status
Completed; PCORI Public and Professional Abstracts Posted
Project Title
Engaging Stakeholders to Improve Depression Management in a Tribal Health System
Board Approval Date
June 2012
Project End Date
June 2015
Organization
Southcentral Foundation
Year Awarded
2012
State
Alaska
Year Completed
2015
Project Budget
$583,709
Study Registration Information
HSRP20133006
Page Last Updated: 
August 15, 2019

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