PMID- 36447255 OWN - NLM STAT- MEDLINE DCOM- 20221206 LR - 20221213 IS - 1472-6963 (Electronic) IS - 1472-6963 (Linking) VI - 22 IP - 1 DP - 2022 Nov 29 TI - Study protocol: a pragmatic trial reviewing the effectiveness of the TransitionMate mobile application in supporting self-management and transition to adult healthcare services for young people with chronic illnesses. PG - 1443 LID - 10.1186/s12913-022-08536-8 [doi] LID - 1443 AB - BACKGROUND: Transition from paediatric to adult heath care services is a challenging time for many adolescents with chronic illnesses and may include deterioration in illness control as a consequence of inadequate self-management skills, poor understanding of their chronic illness and failure to engage with adult services. Successful transfer of health care requires the development of self-management skills and increased autonomy. Mobile technology has been proposed as a modality to assist this process. Evidence is limited and generally restricted to illness specific applications. The TransitionMate app (TMApp) is a generic (non-illness specific) mobile application designed to support young people with chronic illness in their transition from paediatric to adult health care services. The overall aim of the study is to assess the effectiveness of TMApp in improving engagement and retention of adolescents with chronic illness within adult healthcare services, as well as preventing the deterioration in illness control and unplanned hospitalisations. METHODS: The TransitionMate trial is a dual centre, pragmatic, single arm, mixed methods cohort study conducted within two university teaching tertiary paediatric hospitals in Australia. Data collection points are planned at 0, 6, 12 and 18 months. Outcome indicators include: usage of TransitionMate, engagement with adult services, quantitative markers of illness control, and unplanned hospital admissions. Data are collected through telephone interviews with the participants, their primary healthcare providers, electronic medical records and de-identified mobile application analytics. The development of the application involved co-design with recently transitioned young people with a number of chronic illnesses as well as online user experience in younger adolescents. DISCUSSION: The TransitionMate study is the first identified trial of a generic mobile application designed to support adolescents with chronic illnesses during the transition process. Results are expected to provide novel insights into the value of technological tools in the transition space, especially their effectiveness in improving both the transition process and clinical outcomes of adolescents with chronic illnesses. Furthermore, the approach of a pragmatic study design may help identify research methods better designed to overcome inherent challenges in research involving adolescents, transition of care and use of mobile application technology. TRIAL REGISTRATION: Registered retrospectively as of 30/1/2020 with Australian New Zealand Clinical Trials Registry: ACTRN12620000074998 . CI - (c) 2022. The Author(s). FAU - Yeung, Jeffrey AU - Yeung J AUID- ORCID: 0000-0002-6385-667X AD - The Clinical School at The Children's Hospital Westmead, Specialty of Child and Adolescent Health, The Faculty of Medicine and Health, The University of Sydney, Sydney, Australia. jeffrey.yeung@health.nsw.gov.au. AD - The Academic Department of Adolescent Medicine, The Children's Hospital Westmead, Sydney, Australia. jeffrey.yeung@health.nsw.gov.au. FAU - Virella Perez, Yisselle I AU - Virella Perez YI AD - The Clinical School at The Children's Hospital Westmead, Specialty of Child and Adolescent Health, The Faculty of Medicine and Health, The University of Sydney, Sydney, Australia. AD - The Academic Department of Adolescent Medicine, The Children's Hospital Westmead, Sydney, Australia. FAU - Samarasinghe, Shehani C AU - Samarasinghe SC AD - The Clinical School at The Children's Hospital Westmead, Specialty of Child and Adolescent Health, The Faculty of Medicine and Health, The University of Sydney, Sydney, Australia. AD - The Academic Department of Adolescent Medicine, The Children's Hospital Westmead, Sydney, Australia. FAU - Forsyth, Vhari AU - Forsyth V AD - The Clinical School at The Children's Hospital Westmead, Specialty of Child and Adolescent Health, The Faculty of Medicine and Health, The University of Sydney, Sydney, Australia. AD - The Academic Department of Adolescent Medicine, The Children's Hospital Westmead, Sydney, Australia. FAU - Agarwalla, Vathsala AU - Agarwalla V AD - The Academic Department of Adolescent Medicine, The Children's Hospital Westmead, Sydney, Australia. FAU - Steinbeck, Katharine AU - Steinbeck K AD - The Clinical School at The Children's Hospital Westmead, Specialty of Child and Adolescent Health, The Faculty of Medicine and Health, The University of Sydney, Sydney, Australia. AD - The Academic Department of Adolescent Medicine, The Children's Hospital Westmead, Sydney, Australia. LA - eng GR - ACI/10/432/nsw ministry of health/ PT - Clinical Trial Protocol PT - Journal Article DEP - 20221129 PL - England TA - BMC Health Serv Res JT - BMC health services research JID - 101088677 SB - IM MH - Adolescent MH - Humans MH - Australia MH - *Chronic Disease/therapy MH - Cohort Studies MH - *Mobile Applications MH - Self-Management MH - Pragmatic Clinical Trials as Topic MH - Multicenter Studies as Topic MH - *Transition to Adult Care PMC - PMC9706969 OTO - NOTNLM OT - Adolescent OT - Chronic illness OT - Mobile application OT - Pragmatic trial OT - Self-management OT - Transition COIS- The authors declare that they have no competing interests. EDAT- 2022/11/30 06:00 MHDA- 2022/12/02 06:00 PMCR- 2022/11/29 CRDT- 2022/11/29 23:58 PHST- 2021/08/12 00:00 [received] PHST- 2022/09/07 00:00 [accepted] PHST- 2022/11/29 23:58 [entrez] PHST- 2022/11/30 06:00 [pubmed] PHST- 2022/12/02 06:00 [medline] PHST- 2022/11/29 00:00 [pmc-release] AID - 10.1186/s12913-022-08536-8 [pii] AID - 8536 [pii] AID - 10.1186/s12913-022-08536-8 [doi] PST - epublish SO - BMC Health Serv Res. 2022 Nov 29;22(1):1443. doi: 10.1186/s12913-022-08536-8.