Title: ChronReg: A feasibility study for a new digital biofeedback intervention for improving emotion self-regulation in young people with long-term chronic health conditions
Funder: Department of Health and Social Care

Abstract: In the UK, 23% of young people are affected by chronic conditions including asthma, diabetes, epilepsy, cancer, and physical/mental impairment. The ongoing treatment and management of these conditions place a huge burden on the patient and the healthcare system at large - 76% of recurrent emergency hospital admissions had a chronic condition. Emotion self-regulation, and specifically diaphragmatic breathing, is crucial to young people s ability to self-manage chronic conditions. If executed effectively it can help them put themselves in state of calm and improves their capacity to deal with the stress, anxiety, and pain, that their condition causes. The problem is that the existing techniques, and intevetions, used to teach emotional self regulation and diaphragmatic breathing are not engaging, and inaccessible, for your people suffering from chronic conditions, which means they are failing to effectively learn this vital skill. BfB Labs is developing a new mobile digital intervention - working title &ldquo;ChronReg&rdquo; - to help young people develop better emotion self-regulation skills to improve and self-manage their chronic conditions. &ldquo;ChronReg&rdquo; will build on BfB Lab s existing proprietary biofeedback technology and algorithm analysing heart rate to provide highly engaging and real-time user feedback on their cognitive/emotional state in order to teach diaphragmatic breathing. BfB Labs have already embedded this technology in an immersive digital gaming intervention for improving emotion self-regulation in young people in the general population - Champions of the Shengha - and have generated evidence of its effectiveness in community settings. ChronReg once developed will be an improvement on existing available interventions focused on breathing because it: Uses real-time biofeedback using HRV that allows users to immediately understand whether they are performing breathing correctly. will be an immersive digital gaming user experience that is optimised to hold children s attention for as a long as possible. will be optimised for chronic condition sufferers designed to be used at specific intervention trigger points, to fit in heir existing care pathways

Lay abstract: In the UK, 23% of young people are affected by chronic conditions including asthma, diabetes, epilepsy, cancer, and physical/mental impairment. The ongoing treatment and management of these conditions place a huge burden on the patient and the healthcare system at large - 76% of recurrent emergency hospital admissions had a chronic condition. Emotion self-regulation, and specifically diaphragmatic breathing, is crucial to young people s ability to self-manage chronic conditions. If executed effectively it can help them put themselves in state of calm and improves their capacity to deal with the stress, anxiety, and pain, that their condition causes. The problem is that the existing techniques, and intevetions, used to teach emotional self regulation and diaphragmatic breathing are not engaging, and inaccessible, for your people suffering from chronic conditions, which means they are failing to effectively learn this vital skill. BfB Labs is developing a new mobile digital intervention - working title &ldquo;ChronReg&rdquo; - to help young people develop better emotion self-regulation skills to improve and self-manage their chronic conditions. &ldquo;ChronReg&rdquo; will build on BfB Lab s existing proprietary biofeedback technology and algorithm analysing heart rate to provide highly engaging and real-time user feedback on their cognitive/emotional state in order to teach diaphragmatic breathing. BfB Labs have already embedded this technology in an immersive digital gaming intervention for improving emotion self-regulation in young people in the general population - Champions of the Shengha - and have generated evidence of its effectiveness in community settings. ChronReg once developed will be an improvement on existing available interventions focused on breathing because it: Uses real-time biofeedback using HRV that allows users to immediately understand whether they are performing breathing correctly. will be an immersive digital gaming user experience that is optimised to hold children s attention for as a long as possible. will be optimised for chronic condition sufferers designed to be used at specific intervention trigger points, to fit in heir existing care pathways

Research activity codes: 7.1 INDIVIDUAL CARE NEEDS;4.1 DISCOVERY AND PRECLINICAL TESTING OF MARKERS AND TECHNOLOGIES
Health categories: MENTAL HEALTH