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Trial registered on ANZCTR

Registration number

ACTRN12616001243404

Ethics application status

Approved

Date submitted

30/08/2016

Date registered

6/09/2016

Date last updated

11/07/2018

Type of registration

Prospectively registered

Titles & IDs

Public title

Acceptability and utility of electronic screener, YouthCHAT (Youth Version Case-finding Help Assessment Tool), and its comparison with the Home, Education, Eating, Activities, Drugs and Alcohol, Sexuality, Suicide/Depression, Safety (HEEADSSS) assessment. for young people with long-term physical conditions and high school students.

Scientific title

.Acceptability and utility of electronic screener, YouthCHAT (Youth Version Case-finding Help Assessment Tool), and its comparison with the Home, Education, Eating, Activities, Drugs and Alcohol, Sexuality, Suicide/Depression, Safety (HEEADSSS) assessment. for young people with long-term physical conditions and high school students.

Secondary ID [1]

Nil

Universal Trial Number (UTN)

U1111-1187-0848

Trial acronym

Linked study record

Health condition

Health condition(s) or problem(s) studied:

Anxiety

Depression

Substance Abuse

Condition category

Condition code

Mental Health

Anxiety

Mental Health

Depression

Mental Health

Other mental health disorders

Intervention/exposure

Study type

Interventional

Description of intervention(s) / exposure

We will use a 2 stage, mixed methods participatory action research approach to development and validation of a YouthCHAT (an electronic case finding tool) mapped to all HEEADSSS (face to face psychosocial assessment) domains, and assessment of acceptability of its use at the Starship and Tamaki College settings in Auckland, New Zealand.. YouthCHAT stands for Youth version Case Finding and Help Assessment Tool. Designed in Auckland, New Zealand. It is a self-report screening tool that covers 10 domains: smoking, drinking, recreational drug use, problematic gambling, depression, anxiety, sexual health, exposure to abuse, anger management, physical activity and takes between 5-10 minutes to complete. Positive screens lead to branching logic linking users to validated assessment tools. HEEADSSS assessment (Home, Education, Eating, Activities, Drugs and Alcohol, Sexuality, Suicide/Depression, Safety) is a clinician-administered interview-based assessment of youth that can identify mental health and substance use problems. Currently, all Year nine (Yr 9) students in decile 1-3 schools, and some attendees at primary care and paediatric services in NZ are screened for wellbeing via HEEADSSS. While HEEADSSS offers a straightforward, holistic, and gradual approach to assessing young people across many domains, it is a face-to-face assessment, not a screening tool. Drawbacks include its lack of validation cost of resourcing and time required for administration (up to 45 minutes).

Stage 1
The acceptability and utility of YouthCHAT will be evaluated at two settings: with 30 young people aged 13 to 18 years with long-term conditions attending outpatients at Starship Hospital, and 48 Year 9 students attending Tamaki College in 2017 (a sub-set of the 150 students who will participate in the RCT below). A separate focus group will be undrtaken with Maori young people to ascertain and culturally-specific preferences, issues or concerns. Feedback from consenting young people undertaking YouthCHAT will be sought as well as from attending paediatricians and specialist nurses at Starship and from school nurses at Tamaki College.

Stage 2
A randomised controlled trial of YouthCHAT with HEEADSSS with be conducted with 150 participants at Tamaki College using a counterbalanced design in which one group receives YouthCHAT and then HEEADSSS assessment (Condition 1), and the other HEEADSSS and then YouthCHAT (Condition 2) on the same day.

Intervention code [1]

Early detection / Screening

Comparator / control treatment

The comparison of YouthCHAT with HEEADSSS with be conducted at Tamaki College using a counterbalanced design in which one group receives YouthCHAT and then HEEADSSS assessment (Condition 1), and the other HEEADSSS and then YouthCHAT (Condition 2). So, both groups will receive the same interventions, but in a different order.

Control group

Active

Outcomes

Primary outcome [1]

1. Detection rates for each domain for HEADSSS and YouthCHAT as measured by mental health or lifestyle issue ‘present’ or ‘absent’ (Tamaki sample only). Validated scales for anxiety (based on the GAD 7), depression (based on the PHQ9 9) and substance abuse (based on the SACS) are included in YouthCHAT. HEEADSSS assessment identifies these issues using the clinical judgement of the assessor.

Timepoint [1]