Jointly Managing JIA Online: An Internet-based Psycho-educational Game for Children With JIA and Their Parents

The Hospital for Sick Children112 enrolled

Overview

Arthritis in children is a long-term illness and it can make a child's life very difficult. In children 8-11 years old, the child and their family work together to deal with the problems that arthritis can cause. Learning to cope with and manage the problems that come with arthritis can stop it from getting worse. It is important to create programs that teach children and families how to cope with and manage arthritis. This study will develop and test an online game that helps children learn how to better manage their arthritis. The goal of these studies is to test: (1) how easy to use and acceptable the online game is; and (2) if children who play the game feel less pain, have fewer limitations, and a better quality of life compared to children who do not play the game.

Study Type

INTERVENTIONAL

Allocation

RANDOMIZED

Purpose

TREATMENT

Masking

SINGLE

Enrollment

112

Conditions

Juvenile Idiopathic Arthritis

Interventions

In addition to standard medical care, children in the experimental group will receive the Match-3 game. The game will be designed for short individual gameplay sessions (as little as a few seconds), once to three times a day, over the course of 8 weeks, involving no more than 15 minutes per day in anticipated screen time. There is no way to "lose" the game. Through a structured series of daily interactions, the player will learn strategies and develop decision-making abilities that will assist with management of their own JIA. The Match 3 concept (similar to the game, Bejeweled) will require the player to successfully match the treatment strategy to the JIA symptom.

Eligibility

Sex: ALLMin age: 8 YearsMax age: 11 Years

Medical Language ↔ Plain English

Inclusion Criteria: 1. Age ≥ 8 and ≤ 11 years of age 2. Diagnosed with JIA (minimum 3 months) using International League of Associations for Rheumatology classification criteria96 3. Active disease 4. Child and primary parent/caregiver are able to speak and read English or French 5. Participants are willing and able to complete online measures Exclusion Criteria: 1. Cognitive impairments (as assessed by reviewing medical chart and consultation with the patient's rheumatologist) 2. Major co-morbid illnesses (e.g., medical \[inflammatory bowel disease, cancer, diabetes\] or psychiatric \[depression, anxiety\]) which may impact their ability to understand and use the game or complete outcome assessments (as determined by their rheumatologist). 3. Children currently participating in other Cognitive Behavioural Therapy (CBT) interventions 4. Usability testing participants

Locations (7)

BC Children's Hospital

Vancouver, British Columbia, Canada

IWK Health Centre

Halifax, Nova Scotia, Canada

Children's Hospital

London, Ontario, Canada

Children's Hospital of Eastern Ontario

Ottawa, Ontario, Canada

The Hospital for Sick Children

Toronto, Ontario, Canada

CHU Sainte-Justine

Montreal, Quebec, Canada

Montreal Children's Hospital

Montreal, Quebec, Canada

Outcomes

Primary Outcomes

Participant Accrual

This will be centrally tracked by the clinical research project coordinator (CRPC).

Time frame: 8 weeks

Intervention Fidelity

Any issues or difficulties encountered during implementation of the intervention, control strategy, or outcome measures will be tracked throughout the study by the CRPC. For example, issues from a technical standpoint (for example, game not downloading properly, participant requiring assistance using the technology) or logistics standpoint.

Time frame: 8 weeks

Acceptability and Satisfaction with Intervention

Immediately post-trial children and parents in the intervention group will rate their acceptability of and satisfaction with the game and 10-15 English and 10-15 French children and one of their parents will take part in a brief qualitative interview.

Time frame: 8 weeks

Engagement with Intervention

Analytics will be used to track patterns of website program usage ("number of interactions" \[clicks\]).

Time frame: 8 weeks

Dropout Rates

This will be centrally tracked by the clinical research project coordinator (CRPC).

Time frame: 8 weeks

Secondary Outcomes

Pain

Measured using the Standardized Universal Pain Evaluations for Rheumatology providers for children and youth (SUPERKIDZ). It consists of 4 domains: pain intensity and location (5 items), fatigue (1 item), pain interference/evaluative dimension (10 items), and affective/emotional dimension (4 items) for children ≥ 8 years (and parent proxy report for children 4-8 years). This measure takes 3 - 5 minutes to complete.

Time frame: 8 weeks

Pain-related Activity Limitations

Measured using the Child Activity Limitations Interview (CALI-21). This is a 21-item self-report scale divided into (i) active (e.g. gym, sports) and (ii) routine (e.g., schoolwork, reading) activity subscales.

Time frame: 8 weeks

Health-related Quality of Life

Measured using the Arthritis Pediatric Quality of Life Inventory (PedsQL). The PedsQL Arthritis Module is a 22-item self-report scale with five subscales: pain and hurt, daily activities, treatment, worry, and communication.

Time frame: 8 weeks

Self Efficacy

Measured using the Children's Arthritis Self-Efficacy Scale (CASE). The CASE is a disease specific 11-item self-report measure that is divided into three sub-scales: activity, symptom, and emotion. A 5-point Likert scale is used to rate responses to each item with 1 = "not at all sure" to 5 = "very sure" based on how confident the child is that they can manage disease effects.

Time frame: 8 weeks

JIA-specific Disease Knowledge

Measured using the 24-item Medical Issues, Exercise, Pain and Social Support Questionnaire (MEPS). MEPS is made up of 4 sub scales (medical issues, exercise, pain, and social support). Items are rated on a 10-cm VAS with higher scores indicating greater disease knowledge.

Time frame: 8 weeks

Adherence

Adherence to medical treatment will be assessed using the 34-item Child Adherence Report Questionnaire (CARQ) that assesses adherence to prescribed medications, exercises, and wearing of splints over the past 3 months. The CARQ was developed specifically for children with JIA and consists of three sections: (1) responsibility for treatment, (2) child's ability to adhere to the three types of treatment, and (3) perceptions about helpfulness of therapies. Items in the last two sections are rated on 11-point numeric pain rating scale with higher scores indicating better adherence and perceived helpfulness of therapies.

Time frame: 8 weeks