Background: Individuals with disabilities living with chronic health conditions require self-management programs that are accessible, sustainable, inclusive, and adaptable. Health coaching is an effective approach to promoting behavior change in self-management. Health coaching combined with telehealth technology has the potential to improve the overall quality of, and access to, health services.
Objective: This protocol outlines the study design for implementing the My Health, My Life, My Way intervention. The study will assess the feasibility, acceptability, and preliminary efficacy of the intervention for people with disabilities and optimize it.
Methods: The My Health, My Life, My Way study is a 4-arm randomized controlled trial evaluating the delivery of a 6-month intervention involving telecoaching, inclusive educational content, and technology access for 200 individuals with chronic conditions and physical disabilities. This study uses the engineering-inspired multiphase optimization strategy (MOST) framework to evaluate intervention components and assess whether a combination or lack of individual elements influences behavior. Participants will be randomized to 1 of 4 study arms: scheduled coaching calls and gamified rewards, no scheduled coaching calls and gamified rewards, scheduled coaching calls and flat rewards, and no scheduled coaching calls and flat rewards.
Results: The My Health, My Life, My Way study was approved by the institutional review board of the University of Alabama at Birmingham, and recruitment and enrollment will begin in May 2023. Data analysis is expected to be completed within 6 months of ending data collection. This clinical trial protocol was developed based on the SPIRIT (Standard Protocol Items: Recommendations for Interventional Trials) 2013 statement.
Conclusions: The My Health, My Life, My Way study will help to optimize and improve our understanding of the feasibility and efficacy of a web-based self-management program for people with physical disabilities and chronic conditions. More specifically, My Health, My Life, My Way will determine which combination of interventions (coaching calls and gamification) will result in increased participation in self-management programming. The My Health, My Life, My Way intervention has the potential to become a scalable and novel method to successfully manage chronic conditions in people with disabilities.
Trial registration: ClinicalTrials.gov NCT05481593; https://clinicaltrials.gov/ct2/show/NCT05481593.
International registered report identifier (irrid): PRR1-10.2196/31694.
Keywords: artificial intelligence; chronic conditions; health coaching; mobile phone; telehealth.
©Eric Evans, Ayse Zengul, Amy Knight, Amanda Willig, Andrea Cherrington, Tapan Mehta, Mohanraj Thirumalai. Originally published in JMIR Research Protocols (https://www.researchprotocols.org), 28.04.2023.