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A clinical and cost effectiveness trial of a parent group intervention to manage challenging restricted and repetitive behaviours in young children with autism spectrum disorder: study protocol for a randomized controlled trial

Grahame, V.; Dixon, L.; Fletcher-Watson, S.; Garland, D.; Glod, M.; Goodwin, J.; Grayson, Z.; Heron, S.; Honey, E.; Iversen, R.; Kasim, A.S.; Kernohan, A.; Kharatikoopaei, E.; Le Couteur, A.; Mackie, L.; Mathias, A.; Probert, H.; Riby, D.M.; Rob, P.; Rogan, L.; Thompson, S.; Vale, L.; Walls, E.; Webb, E.I.; Weetman, E.; Wolstenhulme, F.; Wood, R.; Rodgers, J.

A clinical and cost effectiveness trial of a parent group intervention to manage challenging restricted and repetitive behaviours in young children with autism spectrum disorder: study protocol for a randomized controlled trial Thumbnail


Authors

V. Grahame

L. Dixon

S. Fletcher-Watson

D. Garland

M. Glod

J. Goodwin

Z. Grayson

S. Heron

E. Honey

R. Iversen

A.S. Kasim

A. Kernohan

A. Le Couteur

L. Mackie

A. Mathias

H. Probert

P. Rob

L. Rogan

S. Thompson

L. Vale

E. Walls

E.I. Webb

E. Weetman

F. Wolstenhulme

R. Wood

J. Rodgers



Abstract

Background Restricted and repetitive behaviours vary greatly across the autism spectrum, and although not all are problematic some can cause distress and interfere with learning and social opportunities. We have, alongside parents, developed a parent group based intervention for families of young children with autism, which aims to offer support to parents and carers; helping them to recognise, understand and learn how to respond to their child’s challenging restricted repetitive behaviours. Methods The study is a clinical and cost-effectiveness, multi-site randomised controlled trial of the Managing Repetitive Behaviours (MRB) parent group intervention versus a psychoeducation parent group Learning About Autism (LAA) (n = 250; 125 intervention/125 psychoeducation; ~ 83/site) for parents of young children aged 3–9 years 11 months with a diagnosis of autism. All analyses will be done under intention-to-treat principle. The primary outcome at 24 weeks will use generalised estimating equation (GEE) to compare proportion of children with improved RRB between the MRB group and the LAA group. The GEE model will account for the clustering of children by parent groups using exchangeable working correlation. All secondary outcomes will be analysed in a similar way using appropriate distribution and link function. The economic evaluation will be conducted from the perspective of both NHS costs and family access to local community services. A ‘within trial’ cost-effectiveness analysis with results reported as the incremental cost per additional child achieving at least the target improvement in CGI-I scale at 24 weeks. Discussion This is an efficacy trial to investigate the clinical and cost-effectiveness of a parent group based intervention designed to help parents understand and manage their child’s challenging RRB. If found to be effective, this intervention has the potential to improve the well-being of children and their families, reduce parental stress, greatly enhance community participation and potential for learning, and improve longer-term outcomes. Trial registration Trial ID: ISRCTN15550611 Date registered: 07/08/2018. Sponsor and Monitor: Cumbria, Northumberland, Tyne and Wear NHS Foundation Trust R&D Manager Lyndsey Dixon, Address: St Nicholas Hospital, Jubliee Road, Gosforth, Newcastle upon Tyne NE3 3XT, lyndsey.dixon@cntw.nhs.uk, Tel: 0191 246 7222

Citation

Grahame, V., Dixon, L., Fletcher-Watson, S., Garland, D., Glod, M., Goodwin, J., …Rodgers, J. (2021). A clinical and cost effectiveness trial of a parent group intervention to manage challenging restricted and repetitive behaviours in young children with autism spectrum disorder: study protocol for a randomized controlled trial. Trials, 22, Article 240. https://doi.org/10.1186/s13063-021-05175-y

Journal Article Type Article
Acceptance Date Mar 8, 2021
Online Publication Date Apr 1, 2021
Publication Date 2021-04
Deposit Date Mar 10, 2021
Publicly Available Date Sep 27, 2021
Journal Trials
Publisher BioMed Central
Peer Reviewed Peer Reviewed
Volume 22
Article Number 240
DOI https://doi.org/10.1186/s13063-021-05175-y
Public URL https://durham-repository.worktribe.com/output/1251453

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Copyright Statement
This article is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License, which permits use, sharing, adaptation, distribution and reproduction in any medium or format, as long as you give appropriate credit to the original author(s) and the source, provide a link to the Creative Commons licence, and indicate if changes were made. The images or other third party material in this article are included in the article's Creative Commons licence, unless indicated otherwise in a credit line to the material. If material is not included in the article's Creative Commons licence and your intended use is not permitted by statutory regulation or exceeds the permitted use, you will need to obtain permission directly from the copyright holder. To view a copy of this licence, visit http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/. The Creative Commons Public Domain Dedication waiver (http://creativecommons.org/publicdomain/zero/1.0/) applies to the data made available in this article, unless otherwise stated in a credit line to the data.





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