Translation of Two Healthy Eating and Active Living Support Programs for Parents of 2–6-Year-Old Children: Outcomes of the ‘Time for Healthy Habits’ Parallel Partially Randomised Preference Trial

This translation study assessed the effectiveness of two remotely delivered healthy eating and active living interventions for parents of 2- to 6-year-old children in improving child fruit and vegetable intake, non-core food intake, body mass index (BMI), physical activity, screen time, and sleep. Parents (n = 458) were recruited to a partially randomised preference trial comprising three intervention groups. Healthy Habits Plus comprised six telephone calls, Time2bHealthy comprised six online modules, and the active control comprised ten information sheets and a summary booklet. Data were collected from parents via a telephone questionnaire at baseline and nine months post-baseline. Data were analysed for randomised participants alone (n = 240), preference participants alone (n = 218), and all participants combined (n = 458). There was no significant improvement in fruit and vegetable intake (primary outcome) when comparing the telephone and online interventions to the control. In both the randomised only and all participants combined analyses, there was a significant improvement in non-core food intake for the telephone intervention compared to the control (p < 0.001). Differences between interventions for other outcomes were small. In conclusion, the telephone and online interventions did not improve child fruit and vegetable intake relative to written materials, but the telephone intervention did improve non-core food intake.

The Effectiveness of Telephone Intervention for Improving Patient Adherence to Medication among Diabetic Patients: A Systematic Review and Meta-analysis of Randomized Trials

Introduction: Diabetes is one of the chronic diseases that requires adherence to prescribed medications. With the current pandemic, mobile technology plays a role in caring for patients remotely. Objective: To determine the effectiveness of telephone intervention (phone call and text message) on medication adherence among diabetic patients. Methodology: Randomized controlled trials were searched in Cochrane Library, PubMed, Herdin, BMC Health Services Research using combination of terms through boolean operators (phone message OR phone call) AND (medication adherence AND diabetes) which compared telephone intervention vs usual care. mean, sample size and standard deviation of Medication Adherence in each study were extracted. Review Manager 5.4 software was used for statistical analysis. Results: Three trials met the inclusion criteria and were included in this study. The telephone intervention did not result in statistically significant improvement in medication adherence among diabetics (pooled mean difference: 0.05 95%CI -.08 to 0.17) Conclusion: The intervention was no more effective than the usual care. However, mobile use has potential application for remote care during this pandemic.

Patient Activation, Depressive Symptoms, and Self-Rated Health: Care Management Intervention Effects among High-Need, Medically Complex Adults

The purpose of this randomized controlled trial (n = 268) at a Federally Qualified Health Center was to evaluate the outcomes of a care management intervention versus an attention control telephone intervention on changes in patient activation, depressive symptoms and self-rated health among a population of high-need, medically complex adults. Both groups had similar, statistically significant improvements in patient activation and self-rated health. Both groups had significant reductions in depressive symptoms over time; however, the group who received the care management intervention had greater reductions in depressive symptoms. Participants in both study groups who had more depressive symptoms had lower activation at baseline and throughout the 12 month study. Findings suggest that patients in the high-need, medically complex population can realize improvements in patient activation, depressive symptoms, and health status perceptions even with a brief telephone intervention. The importance of treating depressive symptoms in patients with complex health conditions is highlighted.

Delivering a patient education intervention using both the internet and telephone: A discursive presentation.

Post-discharge, patient education interventions have been implemented in the cardiovascular surgical population, in which the education is delivered over the telephone. This intervention has shown to be effective in reducing anxiety. However non-significant results have been reported for knowledge acquisition, performance of self-care behaviours, and symptom management during the first 3 weeks of recovery. An internet-telephone educational intervention is presented in this paper as an alternative to usual cardiovascular surgical, post-discharge patient education. It was reasoned that a combined internet-telephone intervention would decrease nursing workload, provide patients with increased access to information, and reduce the number of hospital readmissions and complications experienced during the post-hospital recovery period. A presentation of the intervention is provided where the components are individualized to reflect the learning needs of the individual patient. This is followed by a discussion of the various considerations for the intervention’s design and implementation as they relate to age and socio-economic status is also identified.

Delivering a patient education intervention using both the internet and telephone: A discursive presentation.

Post-discharge, patient education interventions have been implemented in the cardiovascular surgical population, in which the education is delivered over the telephone. This intervention has shown to be effective in reducing anxiety. However non-significant results have been reported for knowledge acquisition, performance of self-care behaviours, and symptom management during the first 3 weeks of recovery. An internet-telephone educational intervention is presented in this paper as an alternative to usual cardiovascular surgical, post-discharge patient education. It was reasoned that a combined internet-telephone intervention would decrease nursing workload, provide patients with increased access to information, and reduce the number of hospital readmissions and complications experienced during the post-hospital recovery period. A presentation of the intervention is provided where the components are individualized to reflect the learning needs of the individual patient. This is followed by a discussion of the various considerations for the intervention’s design and implementation as they relate to age and socio-economic status is also identified.

A Student Telephone Intervention for Primary Care Patient Safety During the COVID-19 Pandemic

Background and Objectives: During the COVID-19 pandemic, medical students were unable to participate in clinical learning for several weeks. Many primary care patients no-showed to appointments and did not receive care. We implemented a telephone outreach program using medical students to call primary care patients who no-showed to appointments and did not receive care. Methods: A brief plan-do-study-act cycle was used to establish protocols and supervision for the phone calls. Results: In the first 5 weeks, of 3,274 scheduled patients there were 426 no-shows; 309 received outreach from students. We developed protocols for supervision, routing, and triage. Conclusion: It is feasible and educationally valuable to collaborate with students to reach patients who are at home due to the pandemic. Other practices could adapt this tool in similar situations.