Clinical trial NCT05854199: THIS-WIC Telehealth Solutions: Evaluation With North Carolina WIC Clients
Official title: THIS-WIC Telehealth Solutions: Evaluation With North Carolina WIC Clients
Study type: INTERVENTIONAL
Overall status: COMPLETED
Phase: NA
Conditions: Telehealth
Nutrition Education
Dietary Intake
WIC
Keywords: Telehealth
WIC
nutrition education
dietary intake
Lead sponsor: Tufts University
Sponsor class: OTHER
Collaborators: name: United States Department of Agriculture (USDA)
name: North Carolina Department of Health and Human Services
name: RTI International
First posted: 2023-05-11
Enrollment: 892
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 the United States Department of Agriculture (USDA) and Tufts University's Telehealth Intervention Strategies for WIC (THIS-WIC) project, North Carolina (NC) WIC department will be implementing new, nutrition education telehealth in NC's WIC program. The purpose of this study is to evaluate the impact of the telehealth platform. The evaluation will focus on NC WIC clients as the study population. The North Carolina WIC department would be implementing this education platform, regardless of the evaluation research. The North Carolina WIC department is responsible for implementing this new intervention, while the Tufts University research team is responsible for the evaluation of this platform through surveys and analysis of administrative data.

An online survey will be used to gauge WIC clients' satisfaction with the telehealth solution and the impact of the telehealth solution compared to usual care on breastfeed duration, dietary intake, attendance at scheduled appointments, attitudes to breastfeeding and nutrition education, and barriers encountered. Survey data will be combined with previously collected data on clients and their families from the NC Management Information Systems (MIS), and aggregate level data from the telehealth solution about utilization.

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 NC 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 NC's telehealth solution to inform how the telehealth solution supports WIC services compared to usual in-person care. The NC telehealth platform includes a mobile-optimized website, meaning that it functions as an app without requiring the amount of memory and data that apps use. Evaluation findings will inform stakeholders about the platform's benefits and how viable it is to sustain and adapt more widely.

Eligibility criteria: Inclusion Criteria:

* pregnant women
* postpartum women
* parent/guardian of a participating infant or child in the WIC program

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).

Exclusion Criteria:

-

Primary outcomes:
measure: Satisfaction with the telehealth solution
timeFrame: During the study period, approximately 12 months
Secondary outcomes:
measure: Breastfeeding duration
timeFrame: During the study period, approximately 12 months
measure: Attendance at scheduled appointments
timeFrame: During the study period, approximately 12 months
measure: Dietary intake
timeFrame: During the study period, approximately 12 months
measure: Attitudes to breastfeeding and nutrition education
timeFrame: During the study period, approximately 12 months
measure: Barriers encountered in obtaining nutrition education
timeFrame: During the study period, approximately 12 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: