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Let's Get REAL: Family Health Communication Tool in Pediatric Stem Cell Transplant and Cellular Therapy

Let's Get REAL: A Pilot Trial of a Family Health Communication Tool in Pediatric Stem Cell Transplant and Cellular Therapy

Status
Recruiting
Phases
Unknown
Study type
Interventional
Source
ClinicalTrials.gov
Registry ID
NCT06689800
Enrollment
60
Registered
2024-11-14
Start date
2024-11-26
Completion date
2026-11-30
Last updated
2026-06-04

For informational purposes only — not medical advice. Sourced from public registries and may not reflect the latest updates. Terms

Conditions

Aplastic Anemia, Hematologic Malignancy, Immune Deficiency, Metabolic Disorder, Sickle Cell Disease, Solid Tumor

Keywords

Pediatric, Family, Decision making, Health Communication, Intervention

Brief summary

The investigators will conduct a pilot feasibility and efficacy trial of a newly developed family health communication tool (called Let's Get REAL) in increasing youth involvement in real-time stem cell transplant and cellular therapy decisions (SCTCT). The investigators will pilot the intervention among 24 youth and their parents, stratified by youth age (stratum 1, 8-12 years of age and stratum 2, 13-17 years of age).

Interventions

BEHAVIORALLet's Get REAL

Family health communication tool

Sponsors

Washington University School of Medicine
Lead SponsorOTHER
National Cancer Institute (NCI)
CollaboratorNIH
St. Louis Children's Hospital Foundation
CollaboratorUNKNOWN

Study design

Allocation
NON_RANDOMIZED
Intervention model
PARALLEL
Primary purpose
HEALTH_SERVICES_RESEARCH
Masking
NONE

Eligibility

Sex/Gender
ALL
Age
8 Years to No maximum
Healthy volunteers
No

Inclusion criteria

Youth: * Children or adolescents 8-17 years of age referred for SCTCT. * Diagnosis of malignant or nonmalignant disorder. * Referred for any type of SCTCT. Autologous and allogeneic stem cell and cellular therapies are eligible. * Planning to meet with a provider to discuss SCTCT. * Must have the ability to understand and willingness to consent to participate after reviewing an IRB approved informed assent document. * Must speak English and be cognitively able to participate. Inclusion Criteria Parents: * Parent or guardian of a child 8-17 years of age with any diagnosis referred for any type of SCTCT. Diagnoses may include malignant and nonmalignant disorders. Autologous and allogeneic stem cell and cellular therapies are eligible. Parent or guardian is defined as an adult who usually cares for the youth and has authority to make medical decisions for them. * Must have the ability to understand and willingness to consent to participate after reviewing an IRB approved informed consent document. * Must speak English and be cognitively able to participate.

Exclusion criteria

Youth: * Active medical problems severe enough to preclude study participation at the time of recruitment. * Patients who are otherwise eligible, but whose primary transplant physician does not want them to participate in the study. * Lacks cognitive capacity to complete study activities, as determined by consenting professional.

Design outcomes

Primary

MeasureTime frameDescription
Feasibility of intervention as measured by the Feasibility of Intervention questionnaireUp to 4 weeks after SCTCT consultation (estimated to be week 8)This is a 4-item scale that youth and their parents report feasibility of the intervention on a 5-point Likert scale ranging from 'Completely disagree' to Completely agree'. A higher score indicates greater feasibility.
Acceptability of intervention as measured by the Acceptability of Intervention questionnaireUp to 4 weeks after SCTCT consultation (estimated to be week 8)This is a 4-item scale that youth and their parents report acceptability of the intervention on a 5-point Likert scale ranging from 'Completely disagree' to Completely agree'. A higher score indicates greater acceptability.
Appropriateness of intervention as measured by the Intervention of Appropriateness questionnaireUp to 4 weeks after SCTCT consultation (estimated to be week 8)This is a 4-item scale that youth and their parents report appropriateness of the intervention on a 5-point Likert scale ranging from 'Completely disagree' to Completely agree'. A higher score indicates greater appropriateness.
Feasibility of intervention as measured qualitativelyUp to 8 weeks after SCTCT consultation (estimated to be week 16)Content analysis of open-ended survey responses and quotations from individual interviews. Will be collecting number of feasibility content codes.
Acceptability of intervention as measured qualitativelyUp to 8 weeks after SCTCT consultation (estimated to be week 16)Content analysis of open-ended survey responses and quotations from individual interviews. Will be collecting number of acceptability content codes.
Appropriateness of intervention as measured qualitativelyUp to 8 weeks after SCTCT consultation (estimated to be week 16)Content analysis of open-ended survey responses and quotations from individual interviews. Will be collecting number of appropriateness content codes.

Secondary

MeasureTime frameDescription
Difference in feasibility scores in those 8-12 years of age and those 13-17 years of age as measured by the Feasibility of Intervention questionnaireUp to 4 weeks after SCTCT consultation (estimated to be week 8)This is a 4-item scale that youth and their parents report feasibility of the intervention on a 5-point Likert scale ranging from 'Completely disagree' to Completely agree'. A higher score indicates greater feasibility.
Difference in acceptability scores in those 8-12 years of age and those 13-17 years of age as measured by the Acceptability of Intervention questionnaireUp to 4 weeks after SCTCT consultation (estimated to be week 8)This is a 4-item scale that youth and their parents report acceptability of the intervention on a 5-point Likert scale ranging from 'Completely disagree' to Completely agree'. A higher score indicates greater acceptability.
Difference in appropriateness scores in those 8-12 years of age and those 13-17 years of age as measured by the Intervention of Appropriateness questionnaireUp to 4 weeks after SCTCT consultation (estimated to be week 8)This is a 4-item scale that youth and their parents report appropriateness of the intervention on a 5-point Likert scale ranging from 'Completely disagree' to Completely agree'. A higher score indicates greater appropriateness.
Perceived levels of decision-making involvement in youth 8-17 years of age and their parents as measured by the Decision Making Involvement ScaleUp to 4 weeks after SCTCT consultation (estimated to be week 8)This is a 30-item scale that youth and their parents report youth involvement behaviors in a decision related to their illness on a 4-point Likert scale ranging from 'A Little Bit' to 'A Lot'. The higher the subscale score (child seek, child express, parent seek, parent express, and joint/options), the more that behavior or type of involvement occurred in the decision making process.
Observed levels of decision-making involvement in youth 8-17 years of age and their parentsUp to 4 weeks after SCTCT consultation (estimated to be week 8)Number of utterance occurrences for the following: 1) who uttered (youth, parent), 2) was utterance prompted (yes/no), if so, by who, 3) type of utterance (questions, opinion, concern, other), and 4) content of utterance (prognosis, side effect, expectation).
Change in youth-parent communication as measured by the Likert-type Parent-Adolescent Communication ScaleUp to 4 weeks prior to SCTCT consultation and up to 4 weeks after SCTCT consultation (estimated to be 8 weeks)This is a 20-item scale that youth and parents report the degree of openness in family communication and the extent of problems with family communications on a 5-point Likert ranging from 'strongly disagree' to 'strongly agree'. A higher score on the degree of openness subscale indicates better communication between parent and adolescent. For extent of problems subscale, a higher score indicates more problems in the parent-child communication.
Change in the level of youth's general anxiety as measured by the Likert-type PROMIS Anxiety 8a Short Form or parent proxyUp to 4 weeks prior to SCTCT consultation and up to 4 weeks after SCTCT consultation (estimated to be 8 weeks)This is an 8-item scale that measures youth's general anxiety in those 8-17 years of age on a 5-point Likert scale ranging from 'never' to 'almost always'.
Level of decisional conflict as measured by the Likert-type Decisional Conflict ScaleUp to 4 weeks after SCTCT consultation (estimated to be week 8)This is a 10-item scale that youth and parents report their personal uncertainty and decisional conflict related to a specific decision. We are using the question format as it is recommended for those with limited reading or response skills. They respond 'Yes', 'No, or 'Unsure'. A total decision conflict score ranges from 0 (no decisional conflict) to 100 (extremely high decision conflict). Higher scores on subscales uncertainty, informed, values clarity, and support reflect feeling extremely uncertain about the best choice, feeling extremely uninformed, feeling extremely unclear about personal values, and feeling extremely unsupported in decision making respectively.
Youth-parent congruence of youth decision making involvement as measured by two Likert type statementsUp to 4 weeks after SCTCT consultation (estimated to be week 8)Number of dyads that agree on these two statements measured on a 4-point Likert scale ranging from 'Not at all' to 'A lot': 1)"I/my child should be involved in future talks about transplant" and 2) "I/my child wants to be involved in future talks about transplant".
Satisfaction with the decision making involvement as measured by one Likert type statementUp to 4 weeks after SCTCT consultation (estimated to be week 8)This is a one item statement, "I am satisfied with my/my child's involvement in the transplant decision making process", measured on a 4-point Likert scale ranging from 'Not at all' to 'A lot'. A higher score indicates more satisfaction.
Number of patients who chose SCTCTUp to 4 weeks after SCTCT consultation (estimated to be week 8)

Countries

United States

Contacts

CONTACTGinny L Schulz, Ph.D., RN, CPNP-PC
schulz_g@wustl.edu314-454-6018
PRINCIPAL_INVESTIGATORGinny Schulz, Ph.D., RN, CPNP-PC

Washington University School of Medicine

Outcome results

None listed

Source: ClinicalTrials.gov · Data processed: Jun 5, 2026