Pilot Randomized Controlled Trial To Assess the Effectiveness of a Heat Risk Reduction Decision Support Platform and Barriers and Facilitators of Its Implementation

NCT ID: NCT06971978

Last Updated: 2025-07-23

Basic Information

• Recruitment Status: NOT_YET_RECRUITING
• Clinical Phase: NA
• Total Enrollment: 30 participants
• Study Classification: INTERVENTIONAL
• Study Start Date: 2025-08-31
• Study Completion Date: 2027-08-31

Brief Summary

The goal of this clinical trial is to learn if an innovative online decision support tool (Chart) that provides localized health risk assessment for extreme heat at the census tract level helps local health departments plan and prepare for extreme heat by identifying risk drivers in their jurisdictions, highlighting interventions that are effective for their jurisdiction's risk profile, and providing information regarding intervention implementation. This trial will evaluate barriers and facilitators of the tool's implementation. The main questions it aims to answer are:

1. Does a health department using the tool have better reach, effectiveness, adoption, implementation, and maintenance of heat-health activities compared with an information-only control?

2. What are the barriers and facilitators of Chart's implementation?

Researchers will compare health departments using Chart to health departments using provided heat-health information only.

Conditions

Extreme Heat; Heat Health; Extreme Heat Waves; Heat; Emergency Preparedness; Disaster Management; Disaster Planning; Disasters

Study Design

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

Study Groups

Intervention group

The intervention group will receive facilitated engagement with Chart. Chart is an online decision support platform designed to support evidence-based climate change adaptation. Chart has a risk assessment platform that provides estimates of heat-health risks at a census tract level under various hazard conditions. It also has a decision support platform that links drivers of risk in a given location with information about potential risk reduction activities and includes information useful to policymakers regarding intervention efficacy, timing, and cost. Facilitated engagement includes an initial introduction to the platform, real-time questions and answers, and focused discussion regarding priority interventions and planning and implementation needs. This engagement comprises about five hours of time that can be provided over the course of a couple weeks or several months, depending on the needs of the health department.

Group Type: EXPERIMENTAL

Online decision support platform to support evidence-based heat health risk assessment and extreme heat event preparedness planning

Intervention Type: OTHER

The intervention group will receive facilitated engagement with Chart. Chart is an online decision support platform designed to support evidence-based risk assessment and planning for extreme heat risk mitigation. Chart has a risk assessment platform that provides estimates of heat-health risks at a census tract level under various hazard conditions. It also has a decision support platform that links drivers of risk in a given location with information about potential risk reduction activities and includes information useful to policymakers regarding intervention efficacy, timing, and cost. Facilitated engagement includes an initial introduction to the platform, real-time questions and answers, and focused discussion regarding priority interventions and planning and implementation needs. This engagement comprises about five hours of time that can be provided over the course of a couple weeks or several months, depending on the needs of the health department.

Control group

Study participants in the control group will be provided with a package of information supportive of heat-health vulnerability and risk assessment and planning for risk reduction activities through built environment hazard mitigation and public health programming. This package will include an annotated list of online resources, including those available on Heat.gov and the CDC website, and a selected set of review papers on heat-health vulnerability, heat-health risk assessment, heat hazard mitigation through built environment strategies, and heat action planning and preparedness.

Group Type: ACTIVE_COMPARATOR

Heat and health risk assessment and preparedness information

Intervention Type: OTHER

Study participants in the control group will be provided with a package of information supportive of heat-health vulnerability and risk assessment and planning for risk reduction activities through built environment hazard mitigation and public health programming. This package will include an annotated list of online resources, including those available on Heat.gov and the CDC website, and a selected set of review papers on heat-health vulnerability, heat-health risk assessment, heat hazard mitigation through built environment strategies, and heat action planning and preparedness.

Interventions

Online decision support platform to support evidence-based heat health risk assessment and extreme heat event preparedness planning

The intervention group will receive facilitated engagement with Chart. Chart is an online decision support platform designed to support evidence-based risk assessment and planning for extreme heat risk mitigation. Chart has a risk assessment platform that provides estimates of heat-health risks at a census tract level under various hazard conditions. It also has a decision support platform that links drivers of risk in a given location with information about potential risk reduction activities and includes information useful to policymakers regarding intervention efficacy, timing, and cost. Facilitated engagement includes an initial introduction to the platform, real-time questions and answers, and focused discussion regarding priority interventions and planning and implementation needs. This engagement comprises about five hours of time that can be provided over the course of a couple weeks or several months, depending on the needs of the health department.

Intervention Type: OTHER

Heat and health risk assessment and preparedness information

Study participants in the control group will be provided with a package of information supportive of heat-health vulnerability and risk assessment and planning for risk reduction activities through built environment hazard mitigation and public health programming. This package will include an annotated list of online resources, including those available on Heat.gov and the CDC website, and a selected set of review papers on heat-health vulnerability, heat-health risk assessment, heat hazard mitigation through built environment strategies, and heat action planning and preparedness.

Intervention Type: OTHER

Eligibility Criteria

Inclusion Criteria

• Local (city or county) health department
• Local (i.e., city or county) health department with at least partial autonomy to pursue the development and implementation of heat-health activities (i.e., not a state where all public health activities are administered at a state level)
• Availability of a staff member to participate in all elements of the trial. Local health department staff responsible for planning and implementing programming to protect constituents from extreme heat.
• Adults whose demographics and health status will mirror those of the general population.
• Current employees of included health departments aged 18 or greater

Exclusion Criteria

• Being in a state where public health activities are exclusively managed at a state level and not having staff availability to participate
• Children and prisoners

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

Sponsors

National Institute of Environmental Health Sciences (NIEHS)

NIH

Sponsor Role: collaborator

University of Washington

OTHER

Sponsor Role: lead

Responsible Party

Jeremy Hess

Professor: Environmental and Occupational Health Sciences

Responsibility Role: PRINCIPAL_INVESTIGATOR

Principal Investigators

Jeremy Hess, MD, MPH

Role: PRINCIPAL_INVESTIGATOR

University of Washington

Central Contacts

Jeremy Hess, MD, MPH

Role: CONTACT

jjhess@uw.edu

206-221-4059

Other Identifiers

1P20ES036748-01

Identifier Type: NIH

Identifier Source: secondary_id

View Link

STUDY00020944

Identifier Type: -

Identifier Source: org_study_id