Study setting
This study will recruit neonates in the National Children’s Hospital (National Center for Child Health and Development [NCCHD], Tokyo, Japan).
Eligibility criteria
High-risk neonates with AD (N=60) who meet all of the following inclusion criteria and none of the exclusion criteria will be enrolled in this study.
Inclusion criteria
Neonates must meet the following inclusion criteria to be enrolled in the study:
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Newborns aged younger than 6 days old at recruitment
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Newborns with at least one parent or sibling who has a past history of AD (high-risk newborn)
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Newborns whose parents provide written informed consent after receiving an explanation
Exclusion criteria
The following exclusion criteria will be used for the study:
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Newborns using topical medications, such as steroids (excluding the mouth and anal areas)
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Newborns with skin lesions, such as abnormal keratinization and bullous disease
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Newborns who are born at <37 weeks in gestation
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Newborns who are born by cesarean section
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Multiple births (not singletons)
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Newborns with serious complications
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Newborns whose immediate family plans to move and who may not be able to visit the study site
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Parents unable to understand Japanese
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Physicians decide that the neonate is not appropriate for participation in the study
Interventions
Study physicians will provide guidance to the legal representative (parents) or their family members on how to bathe, how to apply cosmetics, and how to write a diary at the enrollment. These physicians will check the status of entries in the diary for each visit.
Intervention in each group
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Group A: Fam’s Baby applied twice a day
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Application site: the whole body, except for the scalp
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Amount used once: size of a ping-pong ball (0.7 g/piece) with a total of six pieces (total of 4.2 g)
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Number of applications: twice a day
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Application period: until 32 weeks of age
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Group B: Fam’s Baby applied once a day
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Application site: the whole body, except for the scalp
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Amount used once: size of a ping-pong ball (0.7 g/piece) with a total of six pieces (total of 4.2 g )
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Number of applications: once a day
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Application period: until 32 weeks of age
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Group C: 2e applied once a day [9]
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Application site: the whole body except for the scalp
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Amount used once: one teaspoonful (4.0 g)
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Number of applications: once a day
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Application period: until 32 weeks of age
Criteria for discontinuing or modifying allocated interventions
Study physicians will discontinue the intervention if the research cannot be continued for the following reasons:
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When AD is diagnosed
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Parents request to withdraw the neonate from the study or consent is withdrawn
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When the inclusion criteria are not met or the exclusion criteria are violated after registration
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When the intervention is difficult to continue because of illness, etc.
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When participants do not come to the study site owing to moving
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Discontinuation of the study is deemed appropriate by the study physicians
Study physicians will consider whether to continue the study in the following cases:
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When important information regarding the quality, safety, and efficacy of the intervention is obtained
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When completing the study is determined as difficult to complete owing to difficulty in recruiting study participants or frequent dropouts
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When accepting the intervention is determined as difficult because there is an instruction to change the study plan by the independent data monitoring committee or by the Certified Clinical Research Review Committee
Strategies to improve adherence to interventions
The amount of moisturizer actually used will be calculated by collecting a container of moisturizer at each visit and by measuring the remaining amount, and the frequency of intervention will be confirmed from the diary written by the parents.
Relevant concomitant care permitted or prohibited during the trial
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Once a day, the whole body will be washed with soap at the out of bathtub and the soap will be rinsed with water. The same soap will be distributed in the three groups.
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Bath additives will not be used.
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During the study period, applying other moisturizers, skin topical medicines, and skin application agents is prohibited (excluding the mouth and anal areas).
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If a skin rash appears, physicians will judge whether application of the moisturizer should be interrupted or stopped, and the physicians will start treatment for the skin rash as necessary. If the study intervention is discontinued and treatment improves the condition of the skin, intervention will be resumed. Physicians will record the diagnosis, details of the treatment, and treatment period in an electronic medical chart.
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When AD is diagnosed, the intervention will be stopped and physicians will carry out appropriate treatment.
Provisions for post-trial care
In case of discontinuation due to illness, we will follow-up participants as long as possible until the situation is restored. If a health issue occurs because of this study, treatment will be performed as much as possible.
Primary outcome
The primary outcome is the time to the first onset of AD during application of the moisturizer. The time to onset of AD is defined as the number of days between discharge of the newborn and the onset of AD. The U.K. Working Party’s diagnostic criteria [13] will be used as diagnostic criteria of AD.
Secondary outcomes
Efficacy endpoints include the following: (1) Eczema Area and Severity Index (EASI) scores [14] at 4, 12, 24, and 32 weeks after birth; (2) patient-oriented eczema measure (POEM) scores [15] during the study; (3) stratum corneum hydration at the date of registration at 4, 12, 24, and 32 weeks after birth; (4) total immunoglobulin E (IgE) antibody titer and specific IgE antibody titer (ImmunoCAP) at the diagnosis of AD or at 32 weeks after birth; and (5) serum thymus and activation-regulated chemokine levels at diagnosis of AD or at 32 weeks after birth [16].
Participants’ timeline
Sample size calculation
A total of 60 participants, with 20 in each group, will be enrolled in this study. This is an exploratory study and the target case size is set on the basis of feasibility. In our institute, the number of births exceeds approximately 2000 per year, and the number of singletons born at 37 weeks after pregnancy is approximately 1200 per year. An epidemiological study of AD showed that the prevalence of AD in adults was approximately 5%, and that in neonates with a high risk for either or both parents was approximately 10% [17]. Therefore, recruiting 60 neonates within the 8-month registration period should be possible.
Recruitment
We will place posters and pamphlets around the examination room at our institute. We will perform provisional enrollment and make a list if parents are willing to participate in the study and the offspring may meet the inclusion criteria. When a tentatively listed pregnant woman gives birth, we will reconfirm that the selection criteria are met and recruit the woman.
Assignment of interventions: allocation
Sequence generation
Participants will be assigned 1:1:1 to groups A, B, and C by the substitution block method in the order of registration. No allocation adjustment factor will be set.
Concealment mechanism/implementation
We will use VIEDOC4 (Pharma Consulting Group Japan K.K., Tokyo, Japan) for enrollment for this study, and will enroll the subjects and randomize them. The participant’s identification number and the assigned group will be displayed on electronic data capture, and a registration confirmation notification will be automatically sent to the study physicians and the data center by e-mail. The study physicians will print and store the registration confirmation notification email.
Assignment of interventions: blinding
Who will be blinded
The physicians who measure the EASI and diagnose AD will be blinded to the group allocations and will not look at documents and any other information about the study intervention.
Data collection and management
Plans for assessment and collection of outcomes
A summary of the data collection plan is shown in Table 1. Background information, the living environment, and nutrition will be provided by interview. Adherence and POEM scores will be obtained from the diary. The EASI score and the diagnosis of AD will be obtained by a blinded examination.
Data management
The electronic data capture system will be used for data in this study. All data management will be performed independently by the data center of the NCCHD.
Confidentiality
During conducting research, the staff involved in the study will establish safety management and systems to protect personal information.
Plans for collection, laboratory evaluation, and storage of biological specimens for genetic or molecular analysis in this trial/future use
The study physicians will properly store the samples obtained in this study until 5 years after the study is completed.
Statistical methods
Statistical methods for outcomes
Analysis will be performed according to the intention-to-treat principle. To assess whether group A or group B is more effective than group C in preventing the onset of AD, we will use two co-primary analyses using the log-rank test for the time to the onset of AD. The significance level of each comparison is 2.5%. For each group, Kaplan–Meier estimates of the AD-free rate will be determined. Additionally, the Cox proportional hazards model will be used to estimate the hazard ratios of groups A vs. C and groups B vs. C, and their 95% CIs. The CIs will be calculated using the Wald type method. The exact method will be applied to adjust for tied observation times. A test with Schoenfeld residuals will be used to assess the proportional hazard assumption. If a significance level of 10% rejects the validity of the proportional hazards assumption, group comparisons using the difference in the restricted mean survival time will be applied as a supplementary analysis of the co-primary analysis. For the secondary endpoints, the mean and standard deviation of continuous variables, and the frequency and proportion of discrete variables will be calculated for each treatment group and time point. For the safety endpoints, the frequency and proportion of adverse events occurring will be calculated for each treatment group.
Interim analyses
We do not plan an interim analysis.
Methods for additional analyses (e.g., subgroup analyses)
We do not plan additional analyses.
Methods in analysis to handle protocol non-adherence and any statistical methods to handle missing data
Analysis of the primary and secondary outcomes will be performed on the largest analysis group. As a reference, analysis will be performed on the target group that conforms to the research implementation plan. If there is a serious breach, such as a consent breach, the subject will be excluded from analysis of the target group.
(1) Largest analysis group: full analysis set
Among all randomized subjects, the following will be excluded:
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Subjects who have never had study intervention
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Subjects for whom data were not obtained since the start of the study intervention
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Subjects found to be in violation of eligibility criteria after the fact
(2) Analysis target group conforming to the research protocol: per protocol set
A group of subjects in the full analysis set who do not have significant deviation from the implementation plan will be included. Subjects with the following will be excluded from this group:
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Poor adherence (application amount is <70% of the planned application amount during the study intervention period, or the number of days that the correct number of applications can be performed is <70% of the planned application period during the study intervention period)
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If adherence cannot be evaluated
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When using bath salts for longer than 7 days
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Cosmetics other than test cosmetics or control cosmetics, skin external medicines, and skin application agents are applied for 7 days or longer (excluding external use only around the mouth, pubic area, and anus)
Plans to provide access to the full protocol, participant level-data, and statistical code
We do not plan to provide access to the full protocol, participant level-data, and statistical code.
Oversight and monitoring
Composition of the coordinating center and trial steering committee
The coordinating center is located in the Allergy Center, NCCHD. YI is the principle investigator. KYH will coordinate the PAF study. KP is a biostatistician who will analyze the data. TM and YO will advise the study process.
Composition of the data monitoring committee, and its role and reporting structure
Central and onsite monitoring will be conducted to ensure that this study is conducted safely and according to the research protocol and that data are being collected accurately. Monitoring will be conducted by a person designated by the investigator. The study is independent from the sponsor and competing interests. An independent data monitoring committee will be established in this study to monitor the safety of the study.
Adverse event reporting and harms
In this study, all adverse events that occurred during the study intervention period (after discharge) will be investigated, and the investigators will report the following items to the data center: 1) event name; 2) date of onset; 3) severity (mild, moderate, and severe); 4) seriousness (serious, non-serious); 5) intervention measures (continuation, interruption, and discontinuation); 6) measures (none, yes [contents if yes]); 7) outcomes (recovery, remission, unrecovered, recovered but with sequelae, death, and unknown) and outcome confirmation date; and 8) causal relationship with cosmetics used (can be denied, cannot be denied).
Frequency and plans for auditing conduct of the trial
We do not plan auditing in this study.
Plans for communicating important protocol amendments to relevant parties (e.g., trial participants and ethical committees)
After the approved clinical research review committee at this facility approves a change in the research implementation plan, notification of this change will be submitted to the local welfare department. After approval by the accredited clinical research review board, approval of the administrator of the implementing medical institution regarding the revised content will be obtained. If permission is obtained, the investigators will send a copy of the permit to the Research Secretariat and changes to the research protocol will take effect.
Dissemination plans
Main research results will be submitted to academic journals after the final analysis. The co-authors will be decided in accordance with the Uniform Requirements for Manuscripts Submitted to Biomedical Journals of the International Committee of Medical Journal Editors.