Parent Key Opinion Leaders to Increase Demand of Effective Treatments for Youth Anxiety

NCT ID: NCT04929262

Last Updated: 2023-08-23

Basic Information

• Recruitment Status: COMPLETED
• Clinical Phase: NA
• Total Enrollment: 301 participants
• Study Classification: INTERVENTIONAL
• Study Start Date: 2021-05-03
• Study Completion Date: 2022-07-20

Brief Summary

Despite research identifying effective treatments for youth anxiety, parents (and other primary caregivers) are unaware that some treatments are more effective than others. This study investigates whether having a local parent key opinion leader co-facilitate an educational outreach presentation on effective treatment for youth anxiety will increase parent demand for evidence-based practices (EBPs). It is hypothesized that participants who receive a presentation co-presented by a key opinion leader will be more likely to have sought cognitive behavioral therapy for their child at the three-month follow up, relative to participants who receive a presentation presented by two researchers.

Detailed Description

Anxiety disorders are common among adults and youth and, when left untreated, are associated with several long-term negative sequelae. Although research has identified a number of EBPs for treating youth anxiety (in particular, cognitive behavioral therapy [CBT] with exposures) and despite large-scale implementation efforts, few youth receive EBPs. Direct-to-consumer marketing offers a different approach to increase provider uptake of EBPs by increasing parent demand for EBPs. Direct-to-consumer initiatives are especially important given patient-barriers that prevent youth from receiving treatment, including lack of parental knowledge of EBPs and stigma associated with mental health treatment. Although parent preferences for receiving information about EBPs vary based on demographic factors and individual experiences, research has not investigated methods of tailoring direct-to- consumer efforts to local contexts. Involving a local parent key opinion leader (KOL) to tailor direct-to- consumer initiatives to local contexts may be an effective strategy to increase parent demand for EBPs. KOLs are credible and trustworthy members of a local community who can use their social influence to disseminate information and validate messages about EBPs. Research indicates that KOLs improve health promotion campaigns, but KOLs have not been studied in the context of increasing parent demand for EBPs. The project will examine the role of KOL participation in conducting outreach presentations to increase parent desire to seek CBT for their youth's anxiety. Parent attendees (or primary caregivers; N = 180) will be cluster-randomized by school to one of two different approaches for presentations on EBPs for youth anxiety (90 parents per condition). Both approaches will include community outreach presentations providing information about youth anxiety, effective treatments for youth anxiety, and seeking CBT for youths. The researcher-only condition will be co-facilitated by two researchers. In the KOL condition, a parent KOL from each local community will be involved in tailoring the content of the presentation to the context of the community, co-facilitating the presentation with a researcher, and endorsing strategies in the presentation that they have found to be helpful. The parent-teacher association (or a similar group of parents) from each school will nominate a parent who is well-known and well-respected within their community as the KOL. Parent attendees for both conditions will be recruited by contacting school mental health workers/other school administrators, who will advertise the presentations via their school email list and fliers sent home with children. Parent attendees will complete measures assessing their knowledge of, attitudes towards, and intention to seek CBT pre- and post- presentation, and they will indicate whether they sought CBT for their youth at a three-month follow-up. This study will use a mixed methods approach (integrating quantitative and qualitative methods) to test the effect of KOLs on increasing caregiver demand for CBT for youth anxiety. Primary aims test the relative effects of researcher-only and KOL conditions on changing caregivers' intention to seek CBT for their youth, and actual CBT seeking at three-month follow up. Secondary aims examine (1) the relative effects of researcher-only and KOL conditions on changing caregivers' perceived subjective norms about seeking CBT, attitudes about CBT, stigma about mental illness, and knowledge of how to seek EBPs; and (2) how KOLs affect participants' impression of the researcher presenter. This study will provide future direct-to-consumer efforts with evidence about effective strategies to increase parent demand for EBPs, which in turn will enable parents to seek the best care for their child.

Conditions

Anxiety Disorders

Study Design

• Allocation Method: RANDOMIZED
• Intervention Model: PARALLEL
• Primary Study Purpose: HEALTH_SERVICES_RESEARCH
• Blinding Strategy: NONE

Study Groups

Researcher-Only

The researcher-facilitated presentation, led by two clinical psychology graduate students, will be the same for all schools.

Group Type: ACTIVE_COMPARATOR

Supporting Anxious Youth: Strategies for Caregivers

Intervention Type: BEHAVIORAL

The outreach presentation will last 75 minutes with an additional 15 minutes for caregiver questions. The presentations will occur in the evening via Zoom. The presentation will include information about identifying anxiety disorders, strategies for caregivers to help their youth with anxiety, evidence-based practices to treat youth anxiety, and strategies for finding a therapist who uses cognitive behavior therapy with exposures. The text on the presentations is written at a 5.3 grade reading level. Presentations will incorporate stigma reduction strategies, such as education to dispel myths, and behavioral decision-making tools to elicit hope, empowerment, and motivation.

Key Opinion Leader

The key opinion leader (KOL) co-facilitated presentations will include the same core principles as the researcher-facilitated presentation but may vary by school in terms of specific examples and content emphasized based on KOL feedback. A caregiver KOL from the local community (selected by the parent teacher association or a similar group) will co-facilitate the presentation with a clinical psychology graduate researcher.

Group Type: EXPERIMENTAL

Supporting Anxious Youth: Strategies for Caregivers

Intervention Type: BEHAVIORAL

The outreach presentation will last 75 minutes with an additional 15 minutes for caregiver questions. The presentations will occur in the evening via Zoom. The presentation will include information about identifying anxiety disorders, strategies for caregivers to help their youth with anxiety, evidence-based practices to treat youth anxiety, and strategies for finding a therapist who uses cognitive behavior therapy with exposures. The text on the presentations is written at a 5.3 grade reading level. Presentations will incorporate stigma reduction strategies, such as education to dispel myths, and behavioral decision-making tools to elicit hope, empowerment, and motivation.

Interventions

Supporting Anxious Youth: Strategies for Caregivers

The outreach presentation will last 75 minutes with an additional 15 minutes for caregiver questions. The presentations will occur in the evening via Zoom. The presentation will include information about identifying anxiety disorders, strategies for caregivers to help their youth with anxiety, evidence-based practices to treat youth anxiety, and strategies for finding a therapist who uses cognitive behavior therapy with exposures. The text on the presentations is written at a 5.3 grade reading level. Presentations will incorporate stigma reduction strategies, such as education to dispel myths, and behavioral decision-making tools to elicit hope, empowerment, and motivation.

Intervention Type: BEHAVIORAL

Eligibility Criteria

Inclusion Criteria

• Be least 18 years of age
• Be fluent in English
• Be the primary caregiver of a youth aged 5 to 18 years
• Have a child at one of the schools offering a presentation

Exclusion Criteria

• None

• Minimum Eligible Age: 18 Years
• Eligible Sex: ALL
• Accepts Healthy Volunteers: Yes

Sponsors

National Institute of Mental Health (NIMH)

NIH

Sponsor Role: collaborator

University of Illinois at Chicago

OTHER

Sponsor Role: collaborator

Brown University

OTHER

Sponsor Role: collaborator

Drexel University

OTHER

Sponsor Role: collaborator

Temple University

OTHER

Sponsor Role: lead

Responsible Party

Responsibility Role: SPONSOR

Principal Investigators

Philip C Kendall, Ph.D.

Role: PRINCIPAL_INVESTIGATOR

Temple University

Locations

Temple University

Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, United States

Countries

United States

References

Crane ME, Atkins MS, Becker SJ, Purtle J, Olino TM, Kendall PC. The effect of caregiver key opinion leaders on increasing caregiver demand for evidence-based practices to treat youth anxiety: protocol for a randomized control trial. Implement Sci Commun. 2021 Sep 23;2(1):107. doi: 10.1186/s43058-021-00213-x.

Reference Type: DERIVED

PMID: 34556182 (View on PubMed)

Provided Documents

Document Type: Study Protocol and Statistical Analysis Plan

View Document

Document Type: Informed Consent Form

View Document

Other Identifiers

1F31MH124346-01

Identifier Type: NIH

Identifier Source: secondary_id

View Link

26871

Identifier Type: -

Identifier Source: org_study_id