Clinical Research Directory

Integrating Systems and Basic Income: Improving Outcomes for Families of Young Children

Early childhood is a critical period, laying the foundation for future growth and deveopment. This foundational period has an outsized effect, impacting health, well-being and achievement across one's lifespan. The U.S. lacks a cohesive early childhood system to support families with young children ages 0-5. The goal of this randomized controlled trial(RCT) is to test if community-based support via community health workers(CHWs) improves social and health services utilization, and child development. Furthermore, the trial will examine if income support enhances the impact of a CHW integrated system. Participants are English and Spanish speaking families with healthy newborns. This RCT was designed based on family priorities, community capacity and needs in a collective impact model. This trial is anchored at a university based children's hospital and involves many partners: families, county health, county leadership, a leading early childhood non-profit organization, the county's Medicaid managed care organization.

Enhanced Mentor Mother Strategy for Pregnant and Postpartum Women Living With HIV

Mentor Mothers (MMs) are peer supporters who help pregnant and postpartum women living with HIV (WLHIV) as they receive prevention of mother-to-child transmission of HIV (PMTCT) services in resource-limited settings like Kenya. Differentiated service delivery (DSD) is a care model that tailors services based on clients' needs, helping to improve both the quality and efficiency of care. This hybrid implementation-effectiveness study will test whether an enhanced MM strategy that uses DSD can be successfully carried out and improve health outcomes for mothers and infants. The study will take place at Burnt Forest Sub-District Hospital (BFSDH) in Kenya. Researchers will ask: * Can the enhanced MM strategy be delivered as planned and accepted by patients and staff? * Does the strategy improve clinical outcomes like keeping mothers in PMTCT care, achieving HIV viral suppression, completing infant HIV testing, and preventing HIV transmission to infants? Researchers will compare health outcomes before and after the strategy is introduced at BFSDH, and also compare outcomes at other similar clinics that continue with standard MM services. Women who choose to participate will meet with a MM during their routine antenatal and postnatal clinic visits. They will be offered the enhanced MM support, but can choose to receive standard care if they prefer.

The Effect of Laughter Therapy on Marital Adjustment, Life Satisfaction and Maternal Attachment Level in Mothers

The postnatal period is a fragile period with physical and psychological changes as well as hormonal changes in the mother. Mind-body based complementary practices such as yoga, meditation, relaxation exercises can be used to improve well-being and facilitate adaptation to the changes experienced during this period. Among these practices, laughter yoga is new, simple, cost-effective, non-invasive, widely available online and easily applicable/accessible. In studies, individuals in different populations from children to the elderly have proven that laughter therapy interventions cause improvement in mood and life satisfaction. Looking at the literature, studies on laughter therapy in Turkey are limited and no study has been found on this subject. Therefore, the present study aims to investigate the effect of laughter therapy given to mothers in the postnatal period on partner adjustment, life satisfaction and maternal attachment level in mothers. It is thought that this study will make a very important contribution to the literature.

An Intervention-Based Approach to Strengthen the Psychological Health of Children With Cystic Fibrosis and Their Mothers

Cystic fibrosis (CF) is a life-threatening exocrine gland disease that is often diagnosed in childhood, and its incidence tends to increase and affect physical and mental health.The purpose of this study is to evaluate the effectiveness of the Intervention Program Based on Strengthening the Psychological Resilience of Children Diagnosed with Cystic Fibrosis and Their Mothers, prepared for children with CF (8-12 years old) and their mothers.In the first stage, the CF experiences of children with cystic fibrosis and how they perceive these experiences will be examined with visual phenomenology, and their mothers' CF experiences and perceptions will be examined with phenomenology. In this regard, 10 children will be asked to draw pictures and their pictures will be analyzed. In-depth individual interviews will be held with mothers.In the 2nd stage, the effectiveness of the Intervention Program Based on Strengthening Psychological Resilience for Children Diagnosed with Cystic Fibrosis and Their Mothers will be determined with a pre-test-post-test randomized controlled experimental design.In the literature review, Gpower analysis was performed (α: 0.05, β: 0.99, d: 1.88) based on the results of studies conducted with children diagnosed with CF and their parents, similar to this study, and 15 samples were used for each group. It is planned to recruit people. Considering the possibility of data loss in the study, it was always deemed appropriate to include 22 people for the group. It was planned to sample a total of 88 children with CF and their mothers, 44 in the intervention group and 44 in the control group. In the 3rd stage, after the experiment, the participants' experiences regarding the intervention program will be examined through interviews and qualitative research method. Thus, qualitative interviews will be conducted before and after the experiment. Data will be collected using these tools: Children; Child and Mother Descriptive Characteristics Form, Semi-Structured Interview Form,Respiratory Function Test, Reorganized Cystic Fibrosis Questionnaire, Psychological Resilience Attitude and Skills Scale and Functional Disability Inventory; Mothers; The Revised Cystic Fibrosis Questionnaire, The Depression Anxiety and Stress Scale, Post-Traumatic Growth Scale and Brief Psychological Resilience Scale. Measurements will be taken before the intervention, after the intervention, at the 1st and 3rd months.

Effects of Diet on Perinatal Mood and Cognition

The baby blues are a significant event which can occur immediately following childbirth and is a normal experience occurring in up to 76% of new mothers, characterised by mood swings, irritability and sadness typically lasting 10-14 days. Research suggests that the more severe and longer duration of the baby blues, the higher risk of later postnatal mood disorders. Therefore, this represents a critical period which could benefit from an intervention which may prevent symptom onset or an increase in the severity of mood disorders later in the postpartum. Evidence suggests that consumption of flavonoid rich foods can improve physical health, mood and cognition. Prior research investigating flavonoid intervention in mothers in the first 6 months and 1 year postpartum found significant benefits to mood in the new mothers after daily flavonoid supplementation, showing promise for the management of mood in a key period for mothers, where risk of Postnatal Depression (PND) is high. The immediate postpartum also represents a period of cognitive changes reported to affect up to 80% of new mothers. In addition, women during this time are at an increased risk of high blood pressure and hypertension, which is thought to be a risk factor for the onset and severity of depressive symptoms and cognitive decrements. Flavonoids have been reported to improve cognition and cardiovascular health, therefore, introducing a flavonoid intervention could have benefits to cognition and blood pressure in new mothers. The aim of the current study will be to explore whether the implementation of a high flavonoid diet across a 30-day period will positively affect maternal mental health, cognition and blood pressure. Participants will be assigned to one of three groups; high or low flavonoid diet or a control condition for 30-days, starting at days 0-4 after birth. They will have visits from the researcher at 6 separate time points between the third trimester and 12 weeks postpartum. At each visit, participants will be asked to complete mood questionnaires (PANAS-NOW), Edinburgh Postnatal Depression Scale (EPDS), Postpartum Specific Anxiety Scale (PSAS), State-Trait Anxiety Inventory (STAI), Edinburgh Postnatal Depression Scale- Partner (EPDS-P) followed by a cognitive battery (MANT, RAVLT, PRMQ) and blood pressure recordings (systolic and diastolic blood pressure). Between visits, participants will be contacted by the researcher to record retrospective 24hr food recalls (Intake24).

Program of Health Behaviour Against to Cancer (PHeBAC)

The European Code Against Cancer contains 12 recommendations to reduce the risk of cancer. It is estimated that about half of all cancers could be prevented if all recommendations are followed. The aim of this study was to evaluate the effectiveness of the Program of Health Behaviour Against Cancer (PHeBAC) applied to mothers of children with intellectual disabilities in increasing the participation of mothers and their children with intellectual disabilities in cancer screenings and their health behaviors against cancer. The goal is to improve the preventive health behaviors of children with intellectual disabilities and their mothers against cancer and to increase the rate of participation in cancer screenings. Specific targets are; not smoking and not being exposed to smoking, increasing physical activity, healthy nutrition, limiting alcohol consumption, protection from sunlight, HPV vaccination and increasing participation in breast, cervical and colorectal cancer screenings.