Mobile Sleep and Pain Intervention for OEF, OIF and OND Veterans

Edith Nourse Rogers Memorial Veterans Hospital, Bedford MA

Investigators

Abstract

? DESCRIPTION (provided by applicant): Sleep disturbance in the form of chronic insomnia (difficulty in falling or staying asleep) is a major health care problem for Operation Enduring Freedom (OEF), Operation Iraqi Freedom (OIF), and Operation New Dawn (OND) veterans. Chronic insomnia is often co-morbid with mental and behavioral health issues such as posttraumatic stress disorder (PTSD) and mild traumatic brain injury (mTBI), which are common in these Veterans. Current behavioral interventions like cognitive behavioral therapy for insomnia (CBTI) that are used to treat chronic insomnia are effective, but time-consuming. As a result, this largely younger, working cohort of Veterans does not use and benefit from these interventions as much as they could. We will assess the usability and feasibility of two health information technology (HIT) tools for measuring objective and subjective sleep, and for self-managing chronic insomnia. An existing mobile sleep monitoring device used by some VA sleep clinics, the WatchPAT, will be used to measure objective sleep parameters in the Veteran's home. A benefit of this tool is that it can detect probable sleep apnea, which will permit referral of these Veterans for sleep apnea treatment instead of insomnia self-management. An existing VA mobile health application (or app), the CBTI Coach, can be used on the Veteran's own mobile phone or tablet to teach skills to reduce insomnia based on the elements of manualized CBTI. Our goal is to combine the WatchPAT and the CBTI Coach along with self-management guidance to help Veterans with chronic insomnia learn how to improve their sleep. As part of a 6 week pre-post intervention pilot usability and feasibility trial, patients will record their objective and subjective sleep athome at the beginning of the 6 week self-management trial and again at the end. Subjective sleep reports in the form of sleep diaries will be measured throughout the program as part of using the CBTI Coach app. The objective and subjective sleep reports will be combined and accessible from the mobile device and can be used to help guide sleep self-management by the patient. Self- management will be guided using periodic prompting to use self-management worksheets or elements of the CBTI Coach App. Usability of the two HIT tools will be assessed within the conceptual framework of an Integrated Technology Acceptance Model via survey items about each of the HIT tools. Feasibility will be assessed using measures of the number of times that elements of the CBTI Coach were accessed during the 6 week program, and from a semi-structured qualitative interview conducted at the end of the program. In the interview, we will obtain information about the barriers to and facilitators of use of the WatchPAT and CBTI Coach. If there is high use of these tools for insomnia self-management, then the pilot study will have provided important incremental value to the new VA CBTI Coach app. We will also have evidence about the user factors that impact use of the tools (e.g., depression, mild traumatic brain injury, age), and thereby either be able to target the tools toward those most likely to use them, or suggest further developments to increase use by potential users. The pilot sample (N=40) will provide preliminary data on sleep outcomes. The proposed work is responsive to multiple priority areas for HSR&D including Healthcare Informatics, Healthcare Access, Mental and Behavioral Health, and Post-deployment Health. By partnering with the VA Connected Health Office (Web and Mobile Solutions), the VA's eHealth QUERI, and the developers of the VA CBTI Coach App, we will ensure that these findings are maximally useful for future versions of the CBTI Coach app. We will also be able to determine the usefulness of an integrated mobile sleep assessment and self-management program that can be used by Veterans anywhere.