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CompletedNCT04384276Updated Jan 17, 2023

Weigh Easy: Simplifying Home Weight Monitoring for Infants

An interventional study of The Weigh Easy System and Retrospective Control in Cleft Lip and Palate, sponsored by Children's Mercy Hospital Kansas City. Completed at 1 site in United States. Open to participants aged Up to 12 Weeks, including healthy volunteers. Per ClinicalTrials.gov, last updated 2023-01-17.

Sponsored by Children's Mercy Hospital Kansas City · Not applicable, Interventional, and Other

Phase
Not applicable
Study type
Interventional
Enrollment
157
Allocation
Non-randomized
Ages
Up to 12 Weeks
Sex
All
01

Study summary

This single-site, experimental, pilot study in infants identified from 0 - 3 months of age who present to the Cleft and Craniofacial Clinic with a cleft lip and/or palate will compare weight outcomes of infants who used the Weigh Easy system to monitor weight and historical infants whose weights were monitored without the Weigh Easy system.

Read the detailed description

Patients will be recruited at the earliest possible visit to the Cleft and Craniofacial Clinic. At this visit, families will complete the consent process. After consent is obtained, the study team will ensure that the family is signed up for the Patient Portal and will provide a demonstration of how to safely obtain a weight using the Weigh Easy scale and the infant's car seat. In addition to the luggage scale, a handout will also be sent home with the family, including instructions and safety tips for weighing their infant and instructions for submitting a weight via the Patient Portal.

Families will be asked to submit a weight, obtained with the Weigh Easy scale, via the Weigh Easy eClipboard message on a weekly basis for 3 months.

Three months after the family is enrolled onto the study, the family will be provided the Parental Satisfaction Survey to complete. This will occur at a clinic visit, in the event that a standard of care visit occurs within the window for the visit. If a clinic visit is unavailable, the surveys will be emailed to the family and three reminders will be sent if the survey is not completed in a timely manner.

02

Conditions studied

  • Cleft Lip and Palate

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Keywords

  • Weight Monitoring
03

In context

Cleft Lip

162 studies on the registry are indexed under Cleft Lip; 51 are open to participants now.

This study's enrollment of 157 is above the median of 30 across 114 interventional studies indexed under Cleft Lip.

Browse Cleft Lip studies →

Lead sponsor

Children's Mercy Hospital Kansas City is the lead sponsor of 209 studies on the registry; 22 are open to participants now.

Of its 18 completed or terminated interventional studies of FDA-regulated products, 14 (78%) have results posted.

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

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Who can participate

Ages eligible
Up to 12 Weeks
Sexes eligible
All
Accepts healthy volunteers
Yes

Eligibility criteria

Prospective Group:

Inclusion Criteria:

  • Newborn patient ≤ 12 weeks old
  • Referred to Children's Mercy Hospital Multidisciplinary Cleft Team from December 1, 2019 - November 30, 2020
  • With a diagnosis of cleft lip and/or cleft palate
  • Male or female infant of any ethnic background

Exclusion Criteria:

  • Infant with secondary major birth defect such as heart or abdominal wall defect in addition to cleft condition
  • Infant who is placed in foster care prior to or during the applicable study period
  • Patient parents unable to complete an electronic survey.
  • Patient parents unable to speak and read Spanish or English.

Retrospective Group:

Inclusion Criteria:

  • Newborn patient ≤ 12 weeks old
  • Referred to Children's Mercy Hospital Multidisciplinary Cleft Team from January 1, 2016 to June 30, 2019
  • With a diagnosis of cleft lip and/or cleft palate
  • Male or female infant of any ethnic background

Exclusion Criteria:

  • Infant with secondary major birth defect such as heart or abdominal wall defect in addition to cleft condition
05

Study design

Phase
Not applicable
Primary purpose
Other
Allocation
Non-randomized
Intervention model
Factorial assignment
Masking
None (open label)
Enrollment
157 participants (actual)

Study arms

  • Experimental
    Prospective Weigh Easy

    Patients enrolled onto this arm of the study will use the Weigh Easy system for weight tracking in the first three months of life. Weights will be measured in home using the Weigh Easy scale and transmitted to the study team via the Weigh Easy eClipboard message. A notification scheme will be activated for weights found to have plateaued or decreased to ensure that the infant's standard of care nutritionist and provider are able to follow up and recommend additional interventions to counteract the weight change. After three months, families will complete a satisfaction survey to determine if the Weigh Easy system was preferable or if there are any improvements that could be made. All other aspects of the patients' care will follow the standard of care for cleft and craniofacial diagnoses and will be guided by the nutritionists specializing in cleft and craniofacial care.

    Other: The Weigh Easy System

  • Other
    Retrospective Control Arm

    Patients enrolled onto the control arm will have retrospectively presented to the Cleft and Craniofacial Clinic from January 1, 2016 to December 31, 2018 as infants. These patients were treated with the standard of care for cleft and craniofacial diagnoses and were followed by the nutritionists specializing in cleft and craniofacial care.

    Other: Retrospective Control

Interventions

  • OtherThe Weigh Easy System

    By use of a small user-friendly luggage scale, the family can easily and safely obtain a weight within the comfort of their own home. Using the Weigh Easy eClipboard, a message will be sent to the family on a weekly basis via Cerner's Message Center that will include a link. The link will be used by parents to enter and submit the patient's current weight. Upon submission, the weight will be transmitted into the patient's EMR after it's reviewed and accepted by a member of the study team. When the weight is received in the system, an alert will be triggered that will notify the study team of its arrival. While the Weigh Easy eClipboard function does qualify as a device, as the investigators will be making clinical decisions based off of the data received through the form, the device is not being used investigationally on this study. The eClipboard function is a standard part of the Cerner framework and has been previously investigated and vetted by for safety and efficacy.

  • OtherRetrospective Control

    No interventions will be administered to the historical control group.

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What researchers measure

Primary outcomes

  1. Change in Weight

    Weight will be recorded for the duration of the study to identify points of weight destabilization.

    Time frame: up to 3 months

  2. Change in Nutritional Interventions

    Recommended nutritional interventions will be recorded and analyzed against the recorded weights to identify any correlations to improved growth.

    Time frame: up to 3 months

  3. Change in Admissions

    Number of admission due to feeding problems or failure to thrive will be analyzed by comparing the number and frequency of admissions between the retrospective and prospective cohorts.

    Time frame: up to 3 months

Secondary outcomes

  1. Parental Satisfaction: survey

    The Weigh Easy Parental Satisfaction Survey will be used to create a satisfaction score for each family participating. Answers to this survey will be built using a five-point Likert scale. Minimum score: 4, Maximum score: 20, with higher scores indicating lower parental satisfaction. The survey will be administered at a standard of care appointment three months after enrollment (± 1 month) or via email if an appointment is unavailable during this window. This variable will be measured for the prospective cohort only.

    Time frame: Month 3

07

Study locations

1 site
  • The Children's Mercy Hospital
    Kansas City, Missouri 64108, United States
08

References and documents

Publications

  • Avedian LV, Ruberg RL. Impaired weight gain in cleft palate infants. Cleft Palate J. 1980 Jan;17(1):24-6. PubMed 6928113 ↗
  • Barrett, D. E., Radke-Yarrow, M., & Klein, R. E. (1982). Chronic malnutrition and child behavior: Effects of early caloric supplementation on social and emotional functioning at school age. Developmental Psychology, 18(4):541-556. doi:10.1037/0012-1649.18.4.541
  • Beaumont D. A study into weight gain in infants with cleft lip/palate. Paediatr Nurs. 2008 Jul;20(6):20-3. doi: 10.7748/paed2008.07.20.6.20.c6626. PubMed 18686410 ↗
  • Gregory KE, Radovinsky L. Research strategies that result in optimal data collection from the patient medical record. Appl Nurs Res. 2012 May;25(2):108-16. doi: 10.1016/j.apnr.2010.02.004. Epub 2010 Apr 9. PubMed 20974093 ↗
  • Hartley SL, MacLean WE Jr. A review of the reliability and validity of Likert-type scales for people with intellectual disability. J Intellect Disabil Res. 2006 Nov;50(Pt 11):813-27. doi: 10.1111/j.1365-2788.2006.00844.x. PubMed 16999781 ↗
  • Idohou-Dossou N, Wade S, Guiro AT, Sarr CS, Diaham B, Cisse D, Beau JP, Chappuis P, Hoffman D, Lemonnier D. Nutritional status of preschool Senegalese children: long-term effects of early severe malnutrition. Br J Nutr. 2003 Dec;90(6):1123-32. doi: 10.1079/bjn2003990. PubMed 14641972 ↗
  • Jones WB. Weight gain and feeding in the neonate with cleft: a three-center study. Cleft Palate J. 1988 Oct;25(4):379-84. PubMed 3060285 ↗
  • Kaye A, Thaete K, Snell A, Chesser C, Goldak C, Huff H. Initial Nutritional Assessment of Infants With Cleft Lip and/or Palate: Interventions and Return to Birth Weight. Cleft Palate Craniofac J. 2017 Mar;54(2):127-136. doi: 10.1597/15-163. Epub 2016 Feb 16. PubMed 26882024 ↗
  • Lao LJ, Zhang LY, DU LZ. [Malnutrition in early life and cardiovascular disease in adulthood]. Zhejiang Da Xue Xue Bao Yi Xue Ban. 2015 May;44(3):349-53. doi: 10.3785/j.issn.1008-9292.2015.05.18. Chinese. PubMed 26350019 ↗
  • Marques IL, Nackashi JA, Borgo HC, Martinelli AP, Pegoraro-Krook MI, Williams WN, Dutka JC, Seagle MB, Souza TV, Garla LA, Neto JS, Silva ML, Graciano MI, Moorhead J, Piazentin-Penna SH, Feniman MR, Zimmermann MC, Bento-Goncalves CG, Pimentel MC, Boggs S, Jorge JC, Antonelli PJ, Shuster J. Longitudinal study of growth of children with unilateral cleft-lip palate from birth to two years of age. Cleft Palate Craniofac J. 2009 Nov;46(6):603-9. doi: 10.1597/08-105.1. Epub 2009 May 16. PubMed 19860503 ↗
  • Martin V, Greatrex-White S. An evaluation of factors influencing feeding in babies with a cleft palate with and without a cleft lip. J Child Health Care. 2014 Mar;18(1):72-83. doi: 10.1177/1367493512473853. Epub 2013 Feb 25. PubMed 23439590 ↗
  • Montagnoli LC, Barbieri MA, Bettiol H, Marques IL, de Souza L. Growth impairment of children with different types of lip and palate clefts in the first 2 years of life: a cross-sectional study. J Pediatr (Rio J). 2005 Nov-Dec;81(6):461-5. doi: 10.2223/JPED.1420. PubMed 16385363 ↗
  • Pandya AN, Boorman JG. Failure to thrive in babies with cleft lip and palate. Br J Plast Surg. 2001 Sep;54(6):471-5. doi: 10.1054/bjps.2001.3618. PubMed 11513506 ↗
  • Ranalli DN, Mazaheri M. Height-weight growth of cleft children, birth to six years. Cleft Palate J. 1975 Oct;12:400-4. PubMed 1058750 ↗
  • Sawaya AL, Martins PA, Grillo LP, Florencio TT. Long-term effects of early malnutrition on body weight regulation. Nutr Rev. 2004 Jul;62(7 Pt 2):S127-33. doi: 10.1111/j.1753-4887.2004.tb00082.x. PubMed 15387478 ↗
  • Seth AK, McWilliams BJ. Weight gain in children with cleft palate from birth to two years. Cleft Palate J. 1988 Apr;25(2):146-50. PubMed 3163290 ↗
  • Smedegaard L, Marxen D, Moes J, Glassou EN, Scientsan C. Hospitalization, breast-milk feeding, and growth in infants with cleft palate and cleft lip and palate born in Denmark. Cleft Palate Craniofac J. 2008 Nov;45(6):628-32. doi: 10.1597/07-007.1. PubMed 18956929 ↗
  • Strupp BJ, Levitsky DA. Enduring cognitive effects of early malnutrition: a theoretical reappraisal. J Nutr. 1995 Aug;125(8 Suppl):2221S-2232S. doi: 10.1093/jn/125.suppl_8.2221S. PubMed 7542704 ↗
  • Young A. Cleft lip and/or palate. Community Pract. 2009 Jul;82(7):34-5. No abstract available. PubMed 19626753 ↗

Individual participant data

Plan to share: No — De-identified individual patient data only can be shared with other researchers, however the necessary contracting will be needed prior to any data can be shared.

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Updates

Tracking since Sep 25, 2026
No changes since tracking began. The registry record was last updated on Jan 17, 2023, before this site started recording changes on Sep 25, 2026. Its history is on ClinicalTrials.gov ↗
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Registry details

Key details

Study ID
NCT04384276
Lead sponsor
Children's Mercy Hospital Kansas City
Responsible party
Shao Jiang (Plastic Surgeon, Children's Mercy Hospital Kansas City) — Principal investigator
First posted
May 12, 2020
Start date
Oct 1, 2020
Primary completion
Sep 30, 2022
Completion
Sep 30, 2022
Last update
Jan 17, 2023

Study contacts

Shao Jiang, MD
principal investigator · Children's Mercy Hospital Kansas City

Oversight

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

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