Research in Adherence to Pediatric Medical Regimens
Avani Modi, PhD, is an Associate Professor at the University of Cincinnati College of Medicine and the Division of Behavioral Medicine and Clinical Psychology (Center for the Promotion of Treatment Adherence and Self-Management) at Cincinnati Children’s Hospital Medical Center. Her research lab focuses on adherence to pediatric medical regimens, including the measurement of adherence and identifying barriers to effective disease management, especially within pediatric epilepsy. She also has an interest in the development of health-related quality-of-life outcome measures. Dr. Modi recently completed a K23 Career Development Award from the NIH (K23 HDO57333).
Through her K23 award, Dr. Modi documented patterns of adherence in children with new-onset epilepsy (ages 2-12 years) and identified predictors of adherence (ABC study). She then developed an problem-solving and education intervention to improve adherence for children with epilepsy. She will begin a large-scale randomized controlled clinical trial of 200 participants to improve antiepileptic drug adherence in 2013. Participants will be randomized to the problem-solving/education or education only intervention (STAR study). Dr. Modi is also conducting a study to examine adherence and risk-taking behaviors in adolescents with epilepsy (AAA study). Finally, Dr. Modi is interested in developing a epilepsy health-related quality of life module for the PedsQL (DAILY study). This study includes conducting focus groups, cognitive interviewing and then a national validation of the final measure.