An app to help Black teens with asthma improve their sleep habits
Official title: Personalized Approach To Habits-Sleep (PATH-S), an app to improve sleep for Black teens (ages 14-17) with asthma
Funded at Kdh Research and Communication, INC. · NIH-10921377 · Data updated 2026-11-12
This study is testing a fun app designed to help Black teens with asthma, ages 14-17, get better sleep by using games and personalized tips, so they can feel healthier and manage their asthma symptoms more effectively.
Quick facts
| Grant type | Sbir 1 grant |
|---|---|
| Study type | NIH-funded research |
| Funding institution | Kdh Research and Communication, INC. NIH-funded |
| Lab location | 1 site (Atlanta, UNITED STATES) |
| Project start | July 10, 2024 |
| Project end | July 9, 2025 |
| Funding year | 2024 |
| Award (this year) | $534,119 |
| NIH project number | 1R43HL174208-01 |
| Project ID | NIH-10921377 on NIH RePORTER |
Who could benefit from this research
✓Could help
Ideal candidates for this research are Black teens aged 14-17 who have been diagnosed with asthma.
✕Less likely to help
Patients who do not have asthma or are outside the age range of 14-17 may not benefit from this research.
What this research studies
This research focuses on developing an app called Personalized Approach To Habits – Sleep (PATH-S) aimed at helping Black teens aged 14-17 with asthma improve their sleep duration. The app utilizes casual gaming and intermittent reinforcement techniques to encourage users to adopt personalized habits that promote better sleep. Given that sleep issues are prevalent among teens, especially those with asthma, this app seeks to address the unique challenges faced by this demographic. By improving sleep, the app aims to enhance overall health and reduce asthma symptoms.
Why it matters
Potential benefit: If successful, this research could lead to improved sleep quality and reduced asthma symptoms for Black teens.
How similar studies have gone: Other research has shown success in using technology and gamification to improve health behaviors among adolescents, making this approach promising.
Where this research is happening
-
Kdh Research and Communication, INC.
Atlanta, United States Active
Researchers
- Principal investigator: Twombly, Eric Charles — Kdh Research and Communication, INC.
- Study coordinator: Twombly, Eric Charles
Related research
Other NIH-funded projects on the same topics.
-
GLP-1 receptor agonists as immune targets to treat asthma in lean and obese adults
Aims to understand how GLP-1R‑agonist diabetes medicines may directly calm immune cells to reduce asthma in adults who are lean or obese.
-
Understanding how a type of immune cell called ILC2s affect asthma in adults
This grant studies how group 2 innate lymphoid cells influence asthma in adults to help identify new ways to manage airway inflammation.
-
Expanding understanding of asthma in kids through airways and blood profiling
A study at UC San Francisco will profile blood and nasal/sputum samples from 300 youth (including 200 with asthma) over a year to understand how environmental and social factors influence asthma in marginalized communities.
-
Preventing and improving asthma care for children in urban communities
This program will try several approaches — from giving helpful bacteria to babies to allergy immunotherapy and advanced airway testing — to prevent and better treat asthma in children who live in cities.
-
IDEAL project helps predict vaccine response, infections, and asthma in early childhood
A Child-focused program will collect and share saliva, blood, and tissue samples from diverse infants to find biological patterns that predict how vaccines work, how respiratory infections occur, and who develops asthma.
-
Understanding how early-life immune development affects vaccine responses and asthma risk in children
This project uses lab-grown human immune cells from infants and young children to explore why some kids respond poorly to vaccines and are more prone to respiratory infections and asthma.
About this research
- This is an active NIH-funded research project — typically early-stage science, not a clinical trial accepting patient enrollment.
- Some NIH-funded labs run parallel clinical studies or seek volunteers for related work. To check, contact the principal investigator or institution listed above.
- For full project details, budget, and progress reports, visit the official NIH RePORTER page.