An Intervention to Improve Adolescent Headache Self-management
An Intervention to Improve Adolescent Headache Self-management
The purpose of this study is to test the efficacy of a new app to help adolescents with chronic or reoccurring headaches self manage pain.
Headaches dramatically affect adolescents' overall functioning and quality of life. We have developed a highly engaging mobile-based program that will help adolescents to make connections between behaviors and symptoms, and to ultimately improve functioning and quality of life. The mobile-based program will provide a state of the art pain tracker, a variety of coping strategies, and information about self-management of symptoms. This app will offer a maximally engaging way to help adolescents track their pain, make connections between lifestyle and pain, and learn key self-management skills.
The study involves the participant being randomized into either the experimental group, where he/she will be using this mobile application to track their headache symptoms, or the control group, where he/she will receive headache treatment as usual; the control group will not be using an app for this study. The intervention will last for two months.
Participants will be assessed at baseline, at 2-months post baseline, at 3-months post baseline, and at 6-months post baseline. All participants will be asked to complete online questionnaires about their headaches. We plan to enroll 144 adolescent participants with headaches, as well as one caregiver (meaning a parent/guardian) for each adolescent.
[The above age limits are specific to adolescent participants.]
Inclusion Criteria - Adolescents
Exclusion Criteria - Adolescents
Inclusion Criteria - Caregivers
Parent or guardian of an adolescent who meets the above eligibility criteria for adolescent participants