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3C Institute

Mobile Technology and Online Tools to Improve Asthma Control in Adolescents

NHLBI
ID: 1R44HL127826-01
PI: JANEY MCMILLEN, JEAN-MARIE BRUZZESE, JAMES THOMAS
TERM: 06/15 – 05/17

Asthma is the most common chronic illness affecting youth, with prevalence and morbidity being significant among adolescents. School-based and web-based asthma interventions have been shown to be effective with younger children. Yet, few interventions have been developed and tested with high school students, with only one currently deployed online. The efficacy of Asthma Self-Management for Adolescents (ASMA), an in-person evidence-based high school based intervention, has been established; we have also successfully commercialized technology products for youth that are built on 3C’s dynamic e-learning platform (DELP).

Objective: This Direct to Phase II SBIR project fully developed and preliminarily validated ASMA 2.0, an empirically-based dynamic e-health intervention to assist adolescents with uncontrolled asthma to learn how to manage their illness and improve their asthma control. We applied our demonstrated DELP platform to deploy this demonstrated asthma intervention. Building on ASMA’s success, ASMA 2.0 is grounded in social cognitive theory, motivational interviewing, and best practices for user interface design to create a product that can be disseminated to a broad audience of users. We accomplished three specific aims: (1) fully developed ASMA 2.0, including eight modules with core instructional topics, tailored sessions, and embedded interactive activities; (2) conducted a two group randomized pilot trial with 70, 9th – 12th graders with uncontrolled asthma from two NYC public high schools in order to assess the preliminary intervention effects of ASMA 2.0, and to evaluate the feasibility and acceptability of ASMA 2.0; and (3) finalized and prepared ASMA 2.0 for commercialization based on feedback from adolescents who participated in the pilot test of ASMA 2.0 and stakeholders who treat and/or educate adolescents with asthma or who are likely payers. We also evaluated the reach, acceptability, feasibility, and sustainability of the ASMA 2.0 product.

 

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DEB CHILDRESS, PHD

Chief of Research and Learning Content

BIOGRAPHY

Dr. Childress obtained her PhD in psychology at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill. Prior to coming to 3C Institute, she served as a research associate and a postdoctoral fellow in the Carolina Institute for Developmental Disabilities at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill working on a longitudinal imaging study aimed at identifying the early markers of autism through behavioral and imaging methodologies. She has 19 years of autism research experience, during which she has examined the behavioral, personality, and cognitive characteristics of individuals with autism and their family members. Dr. Childress also has experience developing behavioral and parent report measurement tools, coordinating multi-site research studies, and collecting data from children and families. She has taught courses and seminars in general child development, autism, and cognitive development at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill.

Expertise

  • autism
  • early development
  • behavioral measurement
  • integrating behavioral and biological measurement

Education

  • Postdoctoral fellowship, Carolina Institute for Developmental Disabilities (Institutional NRSA-NICHD), University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill
  • PhD, developmental psychology, University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill
  • BS, psychology (minor in sociology), University of Iowa

Selected Publications

  • Elison, J. T., Wolff, J. J., Heimer, D. C., Paterson, S. J., Gu, H., Hazlett, H. C., Styner, M, Gerig, G., & Piven, J. (in press). Frontolimbic neural circuitry at 6 months predicts individual differences in joint attention at 9 months. Developmental Science.
  • Wassink, T. H., Vieland, V. J., Sheffield, V. C., Bartlett, C. W., Goedken, R., Childress, D. & Piven, J. (2008). Posterior probability of linkage analysis of autism dataset identifies linkage to chromosome 16. Psychiatric Genetics,18(2),85-91.
  • Losh, M., Childress, D., Lam K. & Piven, J. (2008). Defining key features of the broad autism phenotype: A comparison across parents of multiple- and single-incidence autism families. American Journal of Medical Genetics (Neuropsychiatric Genetics), 147B(4):424-33.
  • Wassink, T. H., Piven, J., Vieland, V. J., Jenkins, L., Frantz R., Bartlett, C. W., Goedken, R., … Sheffield, V.C. (2005). Evaluation of the chromosome 2q37.3 gene CENTG2 as an autism susceptibility gene. American Journal of Medical Genetics (Neuropsychiatric Genetics), 136, 36-44.
  • Barrett, S., Beck, J., Bernier, R., Bisson, E., Braun, T., Casavant, T., Childress, D., … Vieland, V. (1999). An autosomal genomic screen for autism. American Journal of Medical Genetics (Neuropsychiatric Genetics), 88, 609-615. doi: 10.1002/(SICI)1096-8628(19991215)88:63.0.CO;2-L
  • Piven, J., Palmer, P., Landa, R., Santangelo, S., Jacobi, D. & Childress, D. (1997). Personality and language characteristics in parents from multiple-incidence autism families. American Journal of Medical Genetics (Neuropsychiatric Genetics), 74, 398-411.
  • Piven, J., Palmer, P., Jacobi, D., Childress, D. & Arndt, S. (1997). Broader autism phenotype: Evidence from a family history study of multiple-incidence autism families. American Journal of Psychiatry, 154, 185-190.