Clinical trial NCT05887869: South Carolina WIC Telehealth Solution
Official title: South Carolina Telehealth Solution
Study type: INTERVENTIONAL
Overall status: COMPLETED
Phase: NA
Conditions: Telehealth
Nutrition Education
Breast Feeding
Dietary Intake
WIC
Keywords: Telehealth
WIC
nutrition education
breast feeding
dietary intake
Lead sponsor: Tufts University
Sponsor class: OTHER
Collaborators: name: United States Department of Agriculture (USDA)
name: South Carolina Department of Health and Environmental Control (DHEC)
name: RTI International
First posted: 2023-06-05
Enrollment: 50
Sex: FEMALE
Minimum age (years): 18
Standard ages: ADULT
OLDER_ADULT
Accepts healthy volunteers: yes
Allocation: RANDOMIZED
Intervention model: PARALLEL
Intervention model description: Study participants will be clients at local WIC agency sites where either the telehealth solution is offered or where only usual care is available (control).
Primary purpose: OTHER

Brief summary: With funding through USDA and Tufts University's Telehealth Intervention Strategies for WIC (THIS-WIC) project, the South Carolina WIC department will be implementing a telehealth solution for nutrition and breastfeeding support. The purpose of this study is to evaluate this telehealth solution. The research/evaluation involves completing online surveys. The evaluation will focus on participant satisfaction, usage of the telehealth solution, and use of information collected on the WIC participant through the WIC management information system (MIS). It is hypothesized that the telehealth solution will increase WIC participant's satisfaction with nutrition and breastfeeding support while also reducing the burden of attending in-person care.

Detailed description: Telehealth can reduce barriers and increase access to care, and it can be applied to the Special Supplemental Nutrition Program for Women, Infants, and Children (WIC). WIC is a federal nutrition assistance program that helps low-income women with children up to age 5. There is a large volume of research that supports remote patient monitoring, and the most benefits are found when telehealth is used for communication and counseling. The USDA awarded Tufts University a grant to test and evaluate the use of telehealth innovations in the delivery of USDA's WIC program. Tufts University then offered the USDA/Tufts Telehealth Intervention Strategies for WIC (THIS-WIC) grant opportunity to WIC state agencies across the US. THIS-WIC selected 7 WIC State Agencies to receive grants, and the South Carolina state agency is one recipient. The THIS-WIC team at Tufts University is leading the evaluation of these telehealth solutions in collaboration with funded WIC State Agencies.

THIS-WIC aims to generate evidence from South Carolina's telehealth solution to inform how the telehealth platform supports WIC services compared to usual in-person care. Evaluation findings will inform stakeholders about the platform's benefits and how viable it is to sustain and adapt more widely.

The purpose of this study is to evaluate the effectiveness of this telehealth solution by having clients complete surveys on their comfortability using telehealth and their satisfaction with the telehealth appointment. Additionally, secondary demographic and other nutrition-related information about study participants is already collected in the MIS and will be utilized.

Eligibility criteria: Inclusion Criteria:

* Pregnant women
* Breastfeeding women
* Postpartum women with children in the age range of 0 to 5 years

Exclusion Criteria:

-

Primary outcomes:
measure: Satisfaction with the telehealth solution
timeFrame: During the study period, approximately 18 months
Secondary outcomes:
measure: Breastfeeding duration
timeFrame: During the study period, approximately 18 months
measure: Attendance at scheduled appointments
timeFrame: During the study period, approximately 18 months
measure: Dietary intake
timeFrame: During the study period, approximately 18 months
measure: Attitudes to breastfeeding and nutrition education
timeFrame: During the study period, approximately 18 months
measure: Barriers encountered in obtaining nutrition education and breastfeeding support
timeFrame: During the study period, approximately 18 months
Other outcomes:
Locations:
city: Boston
country: United States
facility: Tufts University
state: Massachusetts
Study officials:
affiliation: Tufts University
name: Erin Hennessy, PhD
role: PRINCIPAL_INVESTIGATOR
References: