# RE-PACT: Respiratory Exacerbation Plans for Action and Care Transitions for Children with Severe CP

> **NIH NIH R34** · UNIVERSITY OF WISCONSIN-MADISON · 2022 · $236,430

## Abstract

PROJECT SUMMARY / ABSTRACT
 Respiratory illness is the leading cause of hospitalization and death in children with severe cerebral palsy
(CP). Improving these outcomes is limited because interventions to help caregivers identify and manage them
at the right time and context are absent. Severe respiratory illnesses, defined as respiratory diagnoses
requiring hospitalization, begin in the children’s homes, where families are the first in line to manage these
technically challenging and nuanced events. Caregivers report limited knowledge, skill, and confidence to
handle them. To improve these respiratory mortality and hospitalization outcomes, parents need clinical teams
to provide the right support, at the right time, in the right context, i.e., just-in-time and adaptive.
 Just-in-time adaptive interventions hold promise to help children with CP with respiratory illness. Our
previously efficacious behavioral intervention gave families of children with complex illnesses, including CP,
action plans and coaching to manage crises; however, plans were pre-specified, static, and did not adjust to
real-time issues. To prevent severe respiratory illness in CP, responses must be dynamic, addressing the
changing contexts and comorbidities that drive these illnesses. Moreover, clinicians and families need simple
tools to signal when attention is most needed, which our mHealth platform was designed to accomplish.
 The aims of this application are to (1) refine and adapt the Respiratory Exacerbation Plans for Action and
Care Transitions (RE-PACT) intervention program to severe respiratory illness for children with severe CP
across two clinical programs with racial/ethnic and socioeconomic patient diversity; and (2) establish RE-
PACT’s feasibility, acceptability and effect sizes in preparation for a future fully powered multisite randomized
controlled trial of RE-PACT. We will also conduct exploratory analyses of the mediating influence of changes in
caregiver capability, opportunity and motivation on intervention outcomes to test the theoretical intervention
mechanism. Using the evidence-based Replicating Effective Programs adaptation framework, RE-PACT will
add longitudinal mHealth surveillance of parent confidence to avoid hospitalization, triggering just-in-time
action planning and coaching when confidence of low. Focus groups with target family and clinical teams
caring for children with severe CP, and a national Design and Intervention Strategy expert group will guide
intervention revisions. A sample of 90 caregivers of children with severe CP will then be randomized to receive
RE-PACT or active control. Outcome data will be collected at 6 months using mixed methods to evaluate
intervention: 1) feasibility, 2) acceptability, 3) fidelity, and 4) preliminary efficacy, measured by differences in
severe respiratory illnesses compared to control.
 This intervention offers a high potential for widespread dissemination and scalability to address a key
public hea...

## Key facts

- **NIH application ID:** 10398191
- **Project number:** 5R34HL153570-02
- **Recipient organization:** UNIVERSITY OF WISCONSIN-MADISON
- **Principal Investigator:** Ryan J Coller
- **Activity code:** R34 (R01, R21, SBIR, etc.)
- **Funding institute:** NIH
- **Fiscal year:** 2022
- **Award amount:** $236,430
- **Award type:** 5
- **Project period:** 2021-05-01 → 2024-04-30

## Primary source

NIH RePORTER: https://reporter.nih.gov/project-details/10398191

## Citation

> US National Institutes of Health, RePORTER application 10398191, RE-PACT: Respiratory Exacerbation Plans for Action and Care Transitions for Children with Severe CP (5R34HL153570-02). Retrieved via AI Analytics 2026-05-23 from https://api.ai-analytics.org/grant/nih/10398191. Licensed CC0.

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