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RecruitingNCT03332966YEAHUpdated Sep 25, 2024

Youth Experiences and Health Study

An observational study in Psychotic Disorders, Psychiatric Hospitalization and Prodromal Symptoms, sponsored by Finnish Institute for Health and Welfare. Recruiting at 3 sites in Finland. Open to participants aged 15 Years to 18 Years. Per ClinicalTrials.gov, last updated 2024-09-25.

Sponsored by Finnish Institute for Health and Welfare · Observational

From the registry’s dates

  • Primary completion was expected by Dec 2024, 1 year 10 months ago, but the record still lists the study as recruiting.
  • Started Dec 2019; still recruiting 6 years 11 months later.
Study type
Observational
Model
Cohort
Time perspective
Prospective
Enrollment
1,000
Ages
15 Years to 18 Years
Sex
All
01

Study summary

This study aims to identify unusual experiences and psychiatric symptoms that indicate a heightened risk for severe mental disorders - especially psychoses. It is important to develop reliable questionnaire methods that are cost-effective in first-stage screening, leading to in-depth assessments and targeted care. However, existing psychosis-risk questionnaires are limited in content, intended for adults, and have been insufficiently tested for actual predictive value. Therefore we will collect a new, large dataset from an unselected group of adolescents entering psychiatric care in three major urban areas of Finland. Comprehensive national health care registers will be used to assess how well the selected experiences and symptoms predict the participants' mental health over the following few years.

Read the detailed description

The current research will identify specific self-reported risk symptoms for psychosis and psychiatric hospitalization. Data will be collected in a large (N=1000) intake sample from the adolescent outpatients units of three Finnish university hospitals. Besides the central psychotic-like experiences, psychosocial protective factors of positive mental health, resilience, and social networks will also be simultaneously assessed, as well as potentiating risk factors such as trauma, sleep disorders, affective symptoms, borderline personality traits, and substance use. The predictive value of psychotic-like experiences, in isolation and in interaction with the other measures, will assessed with an inclusive national register follow-up of psychosis diagnoses and all-causes psychiatric hospitalization. The study will thus produce risk algorithms for everyday use in psychiatric care. For immediate applicability of results, tools for computerized self-report and automatic risk calculation will be made available for clinical use.

ANALYSIS PLAN To ensure a strong foundation for the primary predictor of positive psychotic-like experience (PLE) intensity, the structural validity of the YEAH questionnaire will be assessed with a theory-driven confirmatory bifactor model, taking into account the ordinal nature of items. In the case of unsatisfactory fit, exploratory analyses will be performed.

The main pre-planned outcome analysis will be baseline latent positive and negative PLE levels on the YEAH questionaire and their interaction predicting the follow-up transition to psychosis. Secondary analyses using the same predictors will use all-causes hospitalization as the outcome, as an indicator of a general deterioration of mental health. Exploratory LASSO analyses of the same outcomes will include as additional predictors all baseline assessments of psychosocial health and symptoms, as well as the symptom stability in the questionnaire follow-up. Best analysis and reporting practices recommended for the field will be followed (Studerus et al, 2017), to minimize chance findings and to allow accurate replication.

Power analyses The expected minimum sample size of 900 questionnaires is conservative for the planned main analyses. In our previous Helsinki Prodromal Study with a similar sampling strategy (Therman et al., 2014), 3.5% of respondents were diagnosed with psychosis within one year. With the consequently expected group sizes of 31 (psychosis) and 869 (others) and error probabilities α and β conservatively both set at 5%, a sensitivity analysis for a one-tailed t-test indicates a required effect size of 0.60 (Cohen's d) for the outcome-group difference in PLE intensity, which is the worst-case scenario. In our previous study, the d for the total score on the fairly non-specific Prodromal Questionnaire was 0.50, and the effect sizes for the brief questionnaires in the Kline et al. (2015) and Kobayashi et al. (2008) studies all corresponded to a d of 1.1 or greater. A d of 0.90 is a thus a conservative expectation with the new questionnaire, which would require a sample size of only 420. With a cut-off set to 20% test positives, already this effect size would achieve clinical usefulness as an initial screen, when the two-year psychosis rate is 5% (sensitivity 50%, positive predictive value 13%, diagnostic odds ratio 4.4). With a realistically obtainable d of 1.5 as the best-case scenario, the questionnaire screening would under the same conditions be highly useful (sensitivity 71%, positive predictive value 18%, diagnostic odds ratio 12).

DOCUMENTATION AND QUALITY Possibilities for continued use of the data will be ensured by carefully documenting data collection methods, external circumstances, as well as the contents of the dataset. For documentation, the project will use the Data Documentation Initiative (DDI, version 3.2 with lifecycle support) international metadata standard.

The primary database will contain a change log and previous versions will be archived with each revision. Main databases of the full dataset with version numbers and change logs will be maintained at the National Institute for Health and Welfare.

DATA CORRECTNESS The primary questionnaire data will be entered directly by the respondents as multiple-choice items on tablet computers. Aggregated and individual responses will be reviewed by clinical workers immediately afterwards and discussed with the respondents as part of clinical routine. There will therefore not be a separate data entry stage with associated data entry errors.

The secondary coded interview data will be entered by clinical workers directly into the database, and will be reviewed by the treating physician as part of clinical practice. Entry fields will be multiple-choice or limited to allowed values.

Correct identification of data will be ensured by the clinical worker entering as primary identifier the unique Finnish national identification number, with the full name as secondary information. The identification number is subject to immediate automatic checks using the builtin check character and the associated age, and it will later be cross-checked with the name in local register follow-ups.

Imported register data will be screened for disallowed values, and dates cross-checked with the primary study database to ensure correct person identification. Local and nationally aggregated register data coverage will be compared to ensure completeness.

ADDITIONAL SECURITY OF PERSONAL IDENTIFYING INFORMATION Personal identifying information will be stored separately from other electronic data, and linked to clinical data by a new random study identifier (a uuid) generated at THL. A uuid, or universally unique identifier, is a 128 bit number, ISO/IEC 9834-8:2014). All analyses will be conducted using datasets without other identifying information than the study uuid. The file with personally identifying information will additionally be encrypted with a study-specific password known only to participating researchers.

DATA SHARING AND LONG-TERM PRESERVATION All materials will be permanently stored in the THL archives as per the Finnish Archive Law (23.9.1994/831).

To ensure maximum discoverability, metadata including codebooks and employed analysis scripts will be archived at the Finnish Social Science Data Archive (FSD) and within the EUDAT metadata infrastructure B2FIND.

Open sharing of the data is not possible as consent for publication of the raw data is not obtained from the participants and the dataset could pose a threat to the confidentiality of their sensitive information.

Due to the sensitive nature of the data and commitments made to the participants on their consent form, the compiled data itself will be managed solely by the National Institute for Health and Welfare (THL) and will be made available to other parties only by separate agreement and in anonymized, redacted form. This redaction work will be in compliance with national guidelines and additionally follow the most restrictive recommended approach among the following authoritative resources:

  1. US National Institutes of Health Data Sharing Policy
  2. UK Data Archive Anonymization/Quantitative
  3. Standards published in leading medical journals (e.g. BMJ 2010;340:c181, doi: 10.1136/bmj.c181)
02

Conditions studied

  • Psychotic Disorders
  • Psychiatric Hospitalization
  • Prodromal Symptoms
  • Cannabis Use
  • Trauma, Psychological

Keywords

  • adolescent
  • outpatients
  • questionnaire
  • psychotic-like symptoms
  • psychosis risk
03

In context

Psychotic Disorders

1,587 studies on the registry are indexed under Psychotic Disorders; 281 are open to participants now.

This study's planned enrollment of 1,000 is above the median of 123 across 221 observational studies indexed under Psychotic Disorders.

Browse Psychotic Disorders studies →

Lead sponsor

Finnish Institute for Health and Welfare is the lead sponsor of 42 studies on the registry; 3 are open to participants now.

Counted across the registry records on this site, refreshed daily.

04

Who can participate

Ages eligible
15 Years to 18 Years
Sexes eligible
All
Accepts healthy volunteers
No
Sampling method
Non-probability sample

Study population

All patients in the adolescent health clinics in three hospital districts of Finland.

Go through the criteria one by one — yes, no or not sure — and take the list to your doctor or the study team. Kept in this browser only.

Inclusion criteria

Start of care in adolescent mental health clinic

Exclusion criteria

Exclusion Criteria:

Previous diagnosis of psychotic disorder

05

Study design

Observational model
Cohort
Time perspective
Prospective
Enrollment
1,000 participants (estimated)
Target follow-up
5 Years
Patient registry
Yes

Groups and cohorts

  • Participants

    The adolescent psychiatric organizations of the Helsinki University Central Hospital (serving the capital region's 1.1 million inhabitants), the Tampere University Hospital (catchment area of 500.000 inhabitants), and the Oulu University Hospital (catchment area of 500.000 inhabitants) have agreed to implement the data collection as part of routine intake assessments for patients aged 15-17. All consenting patients are enrolled; the only exclusion criterion is a previous diagnosis of psychotic disorder. The participants fill in psychiatric self-report questionnaires, and their structured diagnostic interview data are collected with their permission.

    Diagnostic Test: Psychiatric questionnaires · Diagnostic Test: Semi-structured psychiatric interview

Interventions

  • Diagnostic testPsychiatric questionnaires

    Participants will fill in the following questionnaires as part of routine intake assessments: Generalised Anxiety Disorder Assessment (GAD-7); Mini-Social Phobia Inventory; Beck Depression Inventory 21A; Pittsburgh Sleep Quality Index; Insomnia Severity Index; Youth Experiences and Health Questionnaire; Adolescent Dissociative Experiences Scale (abbr.); Adolescent Peer Relations Instrument (APRI-B + cyberbullying, abbr.); Adolescent Trauma and Dissociation Scale (abbr.); Alcohol Use Disorders Identification Test; Alcohol, Smoking and Substance Involvement Screening Test - Lite (extended); Nicotine Questionnaire incl. Heavy Smoking Index; Internet Addiction Test (abbr.); European School Survey Project on Alcohol and Other Drugs 2015 Social Media Use and Computer Gaming; McMaster Family Assessment Device - General Functioning positive items; Multidimensional Scale of Perceived Social Support; Brief Resilience Scale; The Short Warwick-Edinburgh Mental Well-Being Scale

  • Diagnostic testSemi-structured psychiatric interview

    Kiddie Schedule for Affective Disorders and Schizophrenia, version K-SADS-PL 2013.

06

What researchers measure

Primary outcomes

  1. First psychosis disorder diagnosis

    National health care register diagnosis of non-organic psychosis

    Time frame: 5 years from recruitment (baseline questionnaire assessment)

Secondary outcomes

  1. Need for psychiatric care

    National health care register outpatient visits

    Time frame: 5 years from recruitment (baseline questionnaire assessment)

  2. Psychiatric hospitalization

    National health care register record of hospitalization

    Time frame: 5 years from recruitment (baseline questionnaire assessment)

07

Study locations

2 of 3 sites recruiting
  • HUS Helsinki University Hospital, adolescent psychiatry clinics
    Helsinki, 00029, Finland
    Not yet recruiting
  • Northern Ostrobothnia Hospital District, Adolescent Mental Health Clinic
    Oulu, 90230, Finland
    Recruiting
  • Pirkanmaa Hospital District, Tays Central Hospital, Adolescent psychiatry clinic
    Tampere, 33521, Finland
    Recruiting
08

References and documents

Individual participant data

Plan to share: Undecided — Due to the sensitive nature of the data and commitments made to the participants on their consent form, the compiled data itself will be managed solely by the National Institute for Health and Welfare (THL) and will be made available to other parties only by separate agreement and in anonymized, redacted form.

09

Timeline

Tracking since Sep 25, 2026
ElapsedEstimatedEstimated, not yet reachedSimilar studies: half by the dot; the band is the middle halfHalf of similar studies reached it by the dot; the band is the middle half, from a quarter to three quarters

Started Dec 2019 (actual). Primary completion is estimated for Dec 2024, 60 months after the start.

Of 74 non-industry observational studies under Psychotic Disorders, half reached primary completion within 64 months of starting (the median), counting those still running; a quarter within 35 and three quarters within 124. This study's planned 60 months is close to that.

Counting every sponsor, half of 76 studies reached it within 64 months; a quarter within 35 and three quarters within 124.

How these figures are worked out, and which studies are left out of them.

Registered
Nov 1, 2017
First posted
Nov 6, 2017
StartActual
Dec 1, 2019
Primary completionEst.
Dec 31, 2024
CompletionEst.
Dec 31, 2024
Last update
Sep 25, 2024
What these dates mean
Start.
When the first participant enrolled; while estimated, when the study expects to open to recruitment.
Primary completion.
When the last participant was examined or treated to collect data for the study's main question, its primary outcome. A study that stopped early gives the date its data collection stopped.
Completion.
When the last participant's last visit took place, for every outcome, secondary ones and side effects included: the end of the study. Often later than primary completion, sometimes the same day.
Actual and Est.
Actual means the registry says the date has happened. Est. (estimated) is a date the sponsor plans or expects. It can still move, and the sponsor is expected to change it to actual once it has passed.
No changes since tracking began. The registry record was last updated on Sep 25, 2024, before this site started recording changes on Sep 25, 2026. Its history is on ClinicalTrials.gov ↗
10

Registry details

Key details

Study ID
NCT03332966
Lead sponsor
Finnish Institute for Health and Welfare
Collaborators
Hospital District of Helsinki and Uusimaa, Pirkanmaa Hospital District, Northern Ostrobothnia Hospital District
Responsible party
Sponsor
First posted
Nov 6, 2017
Start date
Dec 1, 2019
Primary completion
Dec 31, 2024 (estimated)
Completion
Dec 31, 2024 (estimated)
Last update
Sep 25, 2024

Study contacts

Sebastian Therman, PhD
Contact
Sebastian.Therman@THL.fi
+358445405559
Jaana Suvisaari, MD, PhD
Contact
Jaana.Suvisaari@THL.fi
+358295248539
Sebastian Therman, PhD
study director · Sebastian.Therman@THL.fi
Mauri Marttunen, MD, PhD
principal investigator · Hospital District of Helsinki and Uusimaa

Oversight

Data monitoring committee
No
FDA-regulated drug
No
FDA-regulated device
No
View the source record on ClinicalTrials.gov ↗

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