Exploring Novel Interventions to Improve Adherence in Children With Cystic Fibrosis

Overview

The investigators know that adherence to medications in children with cystic fibrosis (CF) is poor. Forgetfulness has often been reported as a barrier to adherence by both CF patients and their parents. Many of the investigators patients also report being motivated by the results of their lung function studies (PFTs) to stay adherent to their medications. In this study, the investigators would like to see if providing medication reminders and allowing patients to measure their lung function at home will lead to better adherence. This will be a pilot study to determine the feasibility of providing such as a device to children with CF.

This is a randomized controlled trial to assess the impact of home lung function monitoring and medication reminders on adherence, clinical outcomes and quality of life in children with cystic fibrosis (CF) who are between 10 and 21 years of age. Participants will be randomly assigned to either an intervention group or a control group. Those in the intervention group will receive a personal spirometer device that provides medication reminders and allows for lung function monitoring at home. The control group will receive the current standard of care. All participants will be aware that their adherence is being monitored over the course of the study using prescription refill data. Changes in lung function, body mass index and rate of hospitalization will be used as measures of clinical outcome. Responses to age-appropriate well-validated patient questionnaires will be used to assess the impact of the investigators interventions on quality of life and perceptions of treatment burden. Since this device has never been previously studied in this patient population, the investigators would like to do a pilot study with 5 patients (3 in the intervention group and 2 in the control group) over a 3-month period to determine feasibility. This will also help us with the investigator power calculations and ultimately deciding the number of participants that will be needed for the larger study.