What this Trial Is About

Over 60 million persons in the United States (US) identify themselves as Latinx and 25.6% are children under the age of 16. Surgical disparities for adults and children have been identified as a major problem in the US and can be experienced at multiple points along a patient's health care trajectory. Data from the investigator's center indicates that a substantial portion of Latinx children who undergo surgery experience high anxiety and postoperative pain as well as postoperative impairments in psychological and physical functioning as compared to White non-Latin children who undergo surgery. Recent growth in use of mobile devices provides us an opportunity to create low-cost mobile health (mHealth) behavioral interventions to reduce this disparity in surgical outcomes. In a previous National Institutes of Health (NIH) award, the principal investigator (PI) developed and tested an evidence based mHealth tailored intervention (WebTIPS) that aims to prepare and be a companion of a child and their family during a surgical event. WebTIPS aims to enhance the recovery of the child in several ways such as reducing anxiety and pain and is based on information provision, modeling, and teaching of coping skills. WebTIPS, however, was developed and validated with a population of primarily White non-Latinx English-speaking children and their parents. Unfortunately, it is well established that mHealth interventions are significantly less effective when used with specific ethnic minorities unless they underwent a process of cultural adaptation. Over the past 4-years, the investigators have established multiple academic and community collaborations, conducted extensive participatory research with Latinx stakeholders and used the heuristic framework and a modified ecological validity model to culturally adapt WebTIPS. The culturally adapted intervention is called L-WebTIPS. The overall aim of this application is to reduce surgical disparities in a population of Latinx children undergoing surgery. The first phase of this application (R61) includes web programming of L-WebTIPS, and a feasibly randomized control trial (RCT) to test this intervention. The second phase (R33) includes a multi-center RCT which aims to determine the effectiveness of L-WebTIPS compared to attention control intervention in decreasing postoperative pain, opioids consumption and lowering anxiety in Latinx children undergoing outpatient surgery. Secondary aims of the R33 include examining the impact of L-WebTIPS on home-based clinical recovery parameters such as pain, analgesic requirements, new onset behavioral changes and return to normal daily activity in Latinx children undergoing outpatient surgery. The investigators also plan to determine if the use of L-WebTIPS reduces anxiety and improve experience among the parents of Latinx children undergoing surgery. Finally, the investigators plan to determine if the use of L-WebTIPS reduces anxiety and enhance experience among the parents of Latinx children undergoing surgery. The investigators submit that using a cultural adaption process for an existing validated intervention will accelerate the process of reducing surgical disparities and bringing an effective intervention to clinical settings and routine use.

Latinx Children and Surgery