NCT04631237

Developing a Down Syndrome Health Instrument

• Status: Completed
• Phase: —
• Study type: Observational
• Enrollment: 542 (actual)
• Sponsor: Massachusetts General Hospital · Academic / Other
• Sex: All
• Age: 18 Years
• Healthy volunteers: Not accepted

Summary

Although over 200,000 individuals with DS live in the United States, studies to date have focused on outcomes apart from health. The foundation for this proposal is based on the need to accurately measure health of all individuals - specifically, with DS - and the dearth of available tools for this population. Creating such an instrument will provide a barometer of the current state of health for DS and hold use in future research. In this project, I propose to create an instrument that directly assesses health in DS - the Down syndrome Health Instrument (DHI). More specifically, the aims of this proposal are: 1. To conduct focus groups among caregivers, individuals with DS, panels of experts on DS and primary care physicians, and cognitive interviews to refine a conceptual model of health for DS and create an item pool, 2. To administer the DHI and establish internal validity, reliability, and external validity of the DHI for use in clinical research, and 3. To test the usability of the DHI in two pilot settings: research and clinical. This instrument will measure patient-reported health in DS for the first time and allow measurement of health as an outcome which is not currently possible in this population. This can identify gaps in care, then direct and optimize interventions that will improve care.

Conditions

• Down Syndrome
• Health, Subjective

Interventions

Type	Name	Description
OTHER	Observational, no intervention	No intervention involved

Timeline

• Start date: 2020-04-03
• Primary completion: 2025-03-31
• Completion: 2025-03-31
• First posted: 2020-11-17
• Last updated: 2026-02-05

Locations

1 site across 1 country: United States