Clinical trial NCT01264718: A Randomized Trial of Effects of Parent Mentors on Insuring Minority Children
Official title: A Randomized Trial of Effects of Parent Mentors on Insuring Minority Children
Study type: INTERVENTIONAL
Overall status: COMPLETED
Phase: NA
Conditions: Uninsured Children Eligible for Medicaid or CHIP
Keywords: minority health
child
Medicaid
Lead sponsor: University of Texas Southwestern Medical Center
Sponsor class: OTHER
First posted: 2010-12-22
Enrollment: 329
Sex: ALL
Maximum age (years): 18
Standard ages: CHILD
ADULT
Accepts healthy volunteers: yes
Allocation: RANDOMIZED
Intervention model: PARALLEL
Primary purpose: HEALTH_SERVICES_RESEARCH

Brief summary: The Kids' HELP trial rigorously documented that a Parent Mentor intervention results in multiple benefits: more children are insured faster, children's access to healthcare and parental satisfaction improve, quality of well-child care is enhanced, thousands of dollars are saved per child, jobs are created, disparities are eliminated, and the intervention potentially could save our nation billions of dollars.

Detailed description: Background: Six million US children are uninsured, despite two-thirds being eligible for Medicaid/Children's Health Insurance Program (CHIP), and minority children are at especially high risk. The most effective way to insure uninsured children, however, is unclear.

Methods: We conducted a randomized trial of the effects of parent mentors (PMs) on insuring uninsured minority children. PMs were experienced parents with \>=1 Medicaid/CHIP-covered child who received 2 days of training, then assisted families for 1 year with insurance applications, retaining coverage, medical homes, and social needs; controls received traditional Medicaid/CHIP outreach. The primary outcome was obtaining insurance 1 year post-enrollment.

Eligibility criteria: Inclusion Criteria:

1. The parent/guardian is a primary caretaker of a least one child 0-18 years old who currently has no health insurance
2. The parent/guardian self-identifies the uninsured child as Hispanic/Latino, African-American/Black, or both
3. The uninsured child is eligible for either Medicaid or CHIP
4. The parent/guardian is willing to be contacted monthly by telephone, or in the form of a home visit (if no functioning telephone is present in the household).

Primary outcomes:
measure: Number of Children With Health Insurance
timeFrame: One year after enrollment
Secondary outcomes:
measure: Number of Days From Study Enrollment to Obtaining Coverage
timeFrame: One year after enrollment
measure: Parental Satisfaction With the Process of Obtaining Coverage for Child
timeFrame: One year after enrollment
measure: Intervention Cost-Effectiveness Ratio (ICER)
timeFrame: One year after enrollment
Other outcomes:
Locations:
city: Hartford
country: United States
facility: Connecticut Children's Medical Center
state: Connecticut
city: Dallas
country: United States
facility: UT Southwestern
state: Texas
Study officials:
affiliation: Connecticut Children's Medical Center
name: Glenn Flores, M.D.
role: PRINCIPAL_INVESTIGATOR
References:
citation: Flores G, Walker C, Lin H, Lee M, Fierro M, Henry M, Massey K, Portillo A. Design, methods, and baseline characteristics of the Kids' Health Insurance by Educating Lots of Parents (Kids' HELP) trial: a randomized, controlled trial of the effectiveness of parent mentors in insuring uninsured minority children. Contemp Clin Trials. 2015 Jan;40:124-37. doi: 10.1016/j.cct.2014.11.015. Epub 2014 Dec 2.
citation: Flores G, Walker C, Lin H, Lee M, Fierro M, Henry M, Massey K, Portillo A. A successful program for training parent mentors to provide assistance with obtaining health insurance for uninsured children. Acad Pediatr. 2015 May-Jun;15(3):275-81. doi: 10.1016/j.acap.2014.09.011. Epub 2014 Dec 1.
citation: Flores G, Lin H, Walker C, Lee M, Currie JM, Allgeyer R, Fierro M, Henry M, Portillo A, Massey K. Parent Mentors and Insuring Uninsured Children: A Randomized Controlled Trial. Pediatrics. 2016 Apr;137(4):e20153519. doi: 10.1542/peds.2015-3519. Epub 2016 Mar 17.
citation: Flores G, Lin H, Walker C, Lee M, Portillo A, Henry M, Fierro M, Massey K. A cross-sectional study of parental awareness of and reasons for lack of health insurance among minority children, and the impact on health, access to care, and unmet needs. Int J Equity Health. 2016 Mar 22;15:44. doi: 10.1186/s12939-016-0331-y.
citation: Flores G, Portillo A, Lin H, Walker C, Fierro M, Henry M, Massey K. A successful approach to minimizing attrition in racial/ethnic minority, low-income populations. Contemp Clin Trials Commun. 2017 Mar;5:168-174. doi: 10.1016/j.conctc.2017.01.009. Epub 2017 Feb 14.