CaRISMA

(PIS: CHARLES JONASSAINT AND KALEAB ABEBE)

Cognitive Behavioral Therapy and Real-Time Pain-Management Intervention for Sickle-Cell via Mobile Applications

USING INTERVIEWS TO FORMATIVELY EVALUATE TO MOBILE-APP-BASED TREATMENTS FOR SCD PAIN

Sickle cell disease, or SCD, is an inherited blood disease. In SCD, blood cells have a sickle shape that may cause blood cells to lodge in small blood vessels. SCD can cause both daily chronic pain and sudden severe pain that requires prompt medical care. The main way that doctors treat SCD pain is with opioids. But opioids can have serious side effects and don’t work well to treat long-term pain. In this study, the research team is comparing two ways to treat SCD pain that don’t involve opioids. Both ways are effective at treating pain for other health problems. The first way is cognitive behavioral therapy, or CBT. CBT helps patients learn to change patterns in their thinking to better manage their pain. The second is pain education, which teaches patients about SCD and its symptoms. Qual EASE will interview CaRISMA participants at 3 time points during their trial participation in order better understand participants’ experiences with SCD pain treatment and their experiences in the trial, intended as both as part of the formative and summative evaluation of the trial.

Including Perspectives from Participants in Both Treatment Arms

In order to achieve the study goals, we intend to interview 48 participants at 3 time points during their use of the study interventions: at baseline, at midpoint, and following completion of the intervention. Although Qual EASE always works with our study teams to develop interview guides, in this case we worked extensively with one of the project’s Health Coaches in order to ensure that our interview language was sensitive and engaging to the study population. Interviews will focus on participants’ experiences of the interventions, as well as discuss factors that may affect how they interact with the intervention, including previous experiences with and beliefs about CBT and pain management.

Qual EASE will Collect and Analyze Qualitative Interview Data

Qualitative, Evaluation And Stakeholder Engagement (Qual EASE) will aid the project investigators in collecting and analyzing the open-ended interview data that will be used as part of a formative evaluation of the program.

Interviewing, Transcription, and Analysis

Qual-EASE will be collecting and analyzing these interviews using traditional qualitative techniques, including content and thematic analyses. Interviews will be conducted remotely with CaRISMA participants (in keeping with the trial’s nearly fully remote study infrastructure) from across the country, and transcribed in-house. Following transcription, we will utilize MaxQDA software to assist conventional content and thematic analyses of the data