Evaluating the Efficacy of a Mobile Epilepsy Education Package (MEEP) Application Developed for The Parents/Caregivers of Children with Epilepsy in Canada: Protocol for a Unicentre Parallel Open Randomized Trial

Epilepsy education can help address a multitude of concerns encountered by families of children with seizures. The Mobile Epilepsy Education Package (MEEP) was developed, tested and integrated into practice in Turkey to manage epilepsy and increase treatment compliance. This study aims to develop English and French versions of MEEP, adapt it culturally, and evaluate its effectiveness. A two-group, single-center, randomized controlled intervention trial with 1:1 allocation ratio will be conducted in the Pediatric Neurology Clinic of the Montreal Children’s Hospital. Seventy-two caregivers of children with epilepsy (intervention=36, control= 36), aged 1-17 years, will be recruited. Family Introduction Form, Epilepsy Information Scale for Parents and Parental Anxiety Scale for Seizures will be used to collect data at baseline and 3 weeks post-delivery of the 7-week intervention. The MEEP consists of 2 parts: educational content and a parental monitoring section. The control group will receive standard educational services. Primary outcomes are epilepsy knowledge and anxiety, which will be analyzed using multivariate analysis. The content of the MEEP and the questions of the epilepsy education package have been translated into English and French and transferred to the smartphone application. By the end of the study, the English and French versions of MEEP will have been rigorously tested, and ready for future testing and scalability evaluations in Canada. Together, a simple-to-use, easy-to-access and low-cost mobile application will have been created to address a critical gap in the provision of supports and resources for families managing a child with epilepsy in Canada.