Cohort Multiple Randomized Controlled Trial in Pediatric Asthma

The overarching goal of this study is to optimize pediatric asthma care and to continuously evaluate variations/innovations of the care (including transformation to remote eHealth care).

Primary Objectives within cmRCT cohort:

* Provide a framework for multiple randomized (eHealth) interventions for asthmatic children
* Generate short- and long-term data on Quality of life (QoL), asthma outcomes (asthma control, lung function), quality of care, self-management capacity, healthcare use, and therapy compliance in a representative secondary care pediatric asthma cohort.

Secondary Objectives within cmRCT cohort:

* Evaluate current pediatric asthma care at the Pediatric department of Medisch Spectrum Twente, in order to explore possible improvements for the pediatric asthma care.
* Compare the short and long-term asthma outcomes between the eHealth care path and the outpatient care path.
* Compose patient risk profiles that include both personal, clinical and exposome markers and clinical asthma endpoints (for example clinical admission/exacerbations).

Rationale: Testing of eHealth interventions seems crucial since eHealth provides possibilities to obtain a real-time and objective view of asthma symptoms. Traditional randomized controlled trials(RCTs) face challenges in evaluating the effect of multiple eHealth components separately and in the long process of translating intervention ideas into funded research protocols, which may risk the eHealth intervention becoming outdated.

Objective: This study aims to provide a framework to assess the effect of (eHealth) interventions and generate short- and long-term data on clinical and patient-reported outcomes of asthmatic children using a cohort multiple Randomized Controlled Trial (cmRCT) design.

Study design: The CIRCUS study is a cmRCT designed to test multiple eHealth interventions in eligible asthmatic children (4-18 years old, treated in MST) within a cohort. Observational clinical data is collected of these children and both the children and their parents regularly complete questionnaires. In addition, a random selection of eligible children is approached for participation in interventions while the non-selected children remain in the control group.

Study population: Included children are 4-18 years old, diagnosed with asthma following the Global Initiative for Asthma (GINA) criteria and treated in Medisch Spectrum Twente at Enschede.

Main study parameters/endpoints: Primary outcome measures are Quality of life(QoL), asthma outcomes(asthma control, lung function), quality of care, self-management capacity, healthcare use, and therapy compliance.

Nature and extent of the burden and risks associated with participation, benefit, and group relatedness: Children and parents fill out questionnaires on a monthly and half-yearly basis. The questionnaires include: (C)-ACT, PAQLQ, CSQ-4, and PAM-13. In consultation with the patient panel we chose the shortest validated questionnaires to reduce the study burden. Other data (for example healthcare use) is collected by the researchers. No relevant risks were found in the risk analysis. We chose to use this group of children in this study as asthma management in children differs from that in adults.

Eligibility Criteria:
Inclusion Criteria:

* Is 4 to 18 years old
* Is patient at the children's department at Medisch Spectrum Twente at moment of inclusion
* Is diagnosed with asthma by a pediatrician following the Global Initiative for Asthma(GINA) guidelines 2022 \[8\]:

  \*Medical history fitting asthma diagnosis:
* Based on (typical) symptoms: (nighttime) wheezing, dyspnea, coughing (triggered by either viral infections, exercise, allergens or weather changes)
* (Possibly) supplemented with a family history/atopy

AND

\*Spirometry variable expiratory airflow limitation by at least one of these criteria:

* FEV1/FVC reduced compared to lower limit of normal(Z-score ≤ -1.64)
* Positive bronchodilator responsiveness(increase FEV1\>12%)
* Positive Exercise Challenge Test (ECT)(decrease FEV1≥ 13%)
* Excessive variation in lung function (LF) between tests from different dates (variation FEV1\>12% pred)

Exclusion Criteria:

* The child and/or parent(s) has/have insufficient command of the Dutch language resulting in the insufficient ability to understand and/or answer questions