An mHealth Intervention (ReZone) to Help Young People Self-Manage Overwhelming Feelings: Cluster-Randomized Controlled Trial

BACKGROUND: Mental health difficulties in young people are increasing, and there is a need for evidence on the effectiveness of digital interventions to increase opportunities for supporting mental health in young people. Such studies are complicated due to issues of implementation and adoption, outcome measurement, and appropriate study designs. OBJECTIVE: The objective of this study was to examine the effectiveness of an mHealth intervention (ReZone) in reducing mental health difficulties in young people. METHODS: The cluster-randomized controlled trial enrolled 409 participants aged 10-15 years, and classes were allocated to ReZone or management as usual. Self-reported questionnaires were completed at baseline and 3-month follow-up. RESULTS: There were no significant differences between the ReZone condition and management as usual in the self-reported outcome measures. However, there were 3467 usage sessions, which corresponds to 16.9 times per student (total of 205 students) in classes allocated to ReZone. CONCLUSIONS: It is essential to publish studies that do not show significant differences, as these findings can still contribute to the literature, help in learning, and inform the direction of future work. The results reported in this paper could be due to a range of reasons, including whether ReZone has the scope to impact change or limitations related to the setting, context, and appropriateness of an RCT. The findings of this study suggest that ReZone was implemented and adopted. INTERNATIONAL REGISTERED REPORT IDENTIFIER (IRRID): RR2-10.2196/resprot.7019

An App to Help Young People Self-Manage When Feeling Overwhelmed (ReZone): Protocol of a Cluster Randomized Controlled Trial

Background: The association between behavioral difficulties and academic attainment is well established. Recent policy advising schools on managing behavior has promoted the early identification of behavioral difficulties. There is also increasing research into mHealth interventions to provide support for emotional and behavioral difficulties for young people. Objective: The primary aim of the proposed research is to examine the effectiveness of an mHealth intervention, ReZone, in reducing emotional and behavioral difficulties in young people. Methods: The protocol is a cluster trial of 12 classes with N=120 students with classes randomized to ReZone or management as usual. Multilevel modeling will be used to compare ReZone versus management as usual accounting for classroom-level variation. Results: Baseline data collection started in February 2017 and ended in April 2017. Follow-up data collection started in April 2017 and ended in June 2017. Conclusions: The proposed research will provide evidence as to whether ReZone is effective at helping young people to self-manage when feeling overwhelmed

The Implementation of an mHealth Intervention (ReZone) for the Self-Management of Overwhelming Feelings Among Young People

BACKGROUND: The association between mental health difficulties and academic attainment is well established. There is increasing research on mobile health (mHealth) interventions to provide support for the mental health and education of young people. However, nonadoption and inadequate implementation of mHealth interventions are prevalent barriers to such trials. OBJECTIVE: The aim of this study was to bridge this gap and examine the implementation of an mHealth intervention, ReZone, for young people in schools. METHODS: Preliminary data for 79 students collected as part of a larger trial were analyzed. We additionally conducted postimplementation consultations with teachers. RESULTS: ReZone was used 1043 times by 36 students in the intervention arm during the study period. Postimplementation teacher consultations provided data on implementation strategies, barriers, and facilitators. CONCLUSIONS: Implementation strategies, barriers, and facilitators for digital interventions need to be considered to limit nonadoption and inadequate implementation in larger trials. Important considerations involve tailoring the characteristics of the intervention to the requirements of the intended user group, the technology itself, and the organization in which it is implemented. TRIAL REGISTRATION: International Standard Randomised Controlled Trial Number: 13425994; http://www.isrctn.com/ISRCTN13425994

¿ES POSIBLE LA REINFECIÓN POR COVID-19?

Una de las preguntas clave para predecir el curso de la pandemia COVID-19, causada por el síndrome respiratorio agudo severo coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2), es ¿qué tan bien y durante cuánto tiempo protegen las respuestas inmunitarias al hospedador de la reinfección? Para algunos virus, la primera infección puede proporcionar inmunidad de por vida; para los coronavirus estacionales, la inmunidad protectora es de corta duració

A feasibility trial of Power Up: A smartphone app to support patient activation and shared decision making for mental health in young people

Background: Digital tools have the potential to support patient activation and shared decision making in the face of increasing levels of mental health problems in young people. There is a need for feasibility trials of digital interventions to determine the usage and acceptability of interventions. In addition, there is a need to determine the ability to recruit and retain research participants to plan rigorous effectiveness trials and therefore, develop evidence-based recommendations for practice. Objective: To determine the feasibility of undertaking a cluster randomized control trial to test the effectiveness of a smartphone app, Power Up, co-designed with young people to support patient activation and shared decision making for mental health. Methods: Overall, 270 young people were screened for participation and 53% (N = 142) were recruited and completed baseline measures across eight specialist child mental health services (n = 62, mean (SD) age = 14.66 (1.99) years, 52% female) and two mainstream secondary schools (n = 80; mean (SD) age = 16.88 (0.68) years, 46% female). Young people received Power Up in addition to management as usual or received management as usual only. Post-trial interviews were conducted with 11 young people from the intervention arms (specialist services n = 6; schools n = 5). Results: Usage data showed that there were an estimated 50 (out of 64) users of Power Up in the intervention arms. Findings from the interviews indicated that young people found Power Up to be acceptable. Young people reported: 1) their motivation for use of Power Up, 2) the impact of use, and 3) barriers to use. Out of the 142 recruited participants, 45% (64/142) completed follow up measures, and the approaches to increase retention agreed by the steering group are discussed. Conclusions: The findings of the present research indicate that the app is acceptable and it is feasible to examine the effectiveness of Power Up in a prospective cluster randomized control trial. Clinical Trial: ISRCTN: ISRCTN77194423, ClinicalTrials.gov NCT0255279

Diagnostic accuracy of VIDISCA-NGS in patients with suspected central nervous system infections

Objectives: Confirming the diagnosis in viral central nervous system (CNS) infections can be difficult with the currently available diagnostic tools. Virus discovery cDNA-amplified fragment length polymorphism next-generation sequencing (VIDISCA-NGS) is a promising viral metagenomic technique that enables the detection of all viruses in a single assay. We performed a retrospective study on the diagnostic accuracy of VIDISCA-NGS in cerebrospinal fluid (CSF) of individuals with suspected CNS infections. Methods: Consecutive adult patients presenting to the Emergency Department or inpatients, who underwent a lumbar puncture for the suspicion of a CNS infection, were included if they were diagnosed with a viral CNS infection, or if a viral CNS infection was initially suspected but eventually a different diagnosis was made. A quantitative PCR panel of the most common causative viruses was performed on CSF of these patients as reference standard and compared with the results of VIDISCA-NGS, the index test. Results: We included 38 individuals with viral CNS infections and 35 presenting with suspected CNS infection for whom an alternative aetiology was finally established. Overall sensitivity and specificity were 52% (95% CI 31%–73%) and 100% (95% CI 91%–100%), respectively. One enterovirus, detected by VIDISCA-NGS, was only identified by quantitative PCR upon retesting. Additional viruses identified by VIDISCA-NGS consisted of GB virus C, human papillomavirus, human mastadenovirus C, Merkel cell polyoma virus and anelloviruses. Conclusion: In patients for whom routine diagnostics do not yield a causative pathogen, VIDISCA-NGS can be of additional value as it can detect a broader range of viruses, but it does not perform well enough to replace quantitativePCR

Prevalence and incidence of hypoglycaemia in 532,542 people with Type 2 diabetes on oral therapies and insulin: a systematic review and meta-analysis of population based studies

Objective: To collate and evaluate the current literature reporting the prevalence and incidence of hypoglycaemia in population based studies of type 2 diabetes. Research design and methods: Medline, Embase and Cochrane were searched up to February 2014 to identify population based studies reporting the proportion of people with type 2 diabetes experiencing hypoglycaemia or rate of events experienced. Two reviewers independently screened studies for eligibility and extracted data for included studies. Random effects meta-analyses were carried out to calculate the prevalence and incidence of hypoglycaemia. Results: 46 studies (n=532,542) met the inclusion criteria. Prevalence of hypoglycaemia was 45% (95%CI 0.34,0.57) for mild/moderate and 6% (95%CI, 0.05,0.07) for severe. Incidence of hypoglycaemic episodes per person-year for mild/moderate and for severe was 19 (95%CI 0.00, 51.08) and 0.80 (95%CI 0.00,2.15), respectively. Hypoglycaemia was prevalent amongst those on insulin; for mild/moderate episodes the prevalence was 50% and incidence 23 events per person-year, and for severe episodes the prevalence was 21% and incidence 1 event per person-year. For treatment regimes that included a sulphonylurea, mild/moderate prevalence was 30% and incidence 2 events per person-year, and severe prevalence was 5% and incidence 0.01 events per person-year. A similar prevalence of 5% was found for treatment regimes that did not include sulphonylureas. Conclusions: Current evidence shows hypoglycaemia is considerably prevalent amongst people with type 2 diabetes, particularly for those on insulin, yet still fairly common for other treatment regimens. This highlights the subsequent need for educational interventions and individualisation of therapies to reduce the risk of hypoglycaemia