Validating the Efficacy of a Mobile Digital Therapeutic for Insomnia (WELT-I): Randomized Controlled Decentralized Clinical Trial

Abstract

Background: Cognitive behavioral therapy for insomnia (CBT-I) has proven to be an effective treatment; however, its accessibility is limited. To address this issue, digital therapeutics for insomnia (DTx-Is), which are software-driven interventions designed to treat insomnia based on CBT-I, have emerged as a potential solution to enhance access.

Objective: This study aimed to verify the efficacy and safety of WELT-I, a DTx-I. Due to the impact of the global pandemic during the study period, we thought that a decentralized clinical trial (DCT) design that does not require visits to institutions would be appropriate for a clinical study of a digital therapeutic for patients with insomnia. Thus, we also examined the potential of the DCT design as an effective method for validating DTx-Is.

Methods: A double-blind, sham-controlled randomized DCT was conducted with participants who met the diagnostic criteria for insomnia. Participants were recruited through advertisements posted on an open-access website. WELT-I is a DTx-I based on CBT-I. A sham app was engineered to mirror WELT-I's installation, login, user engagement, and content delivery processes while maintaining double-blind protocols. After randomization, participants were asked to use WELT-I or the sham app for 6 weeks. All treatment processes were fully automated. Sleep parameters were measured through an app-based sleep diary. Self-report questionnaires on sleep, depression, and anxiety were administered via the app at baseline and the end of the study. The primary outcome was sleep efficiency. To investigate the feasibility of the DCT design, compliance, retention rate, participant satisfaction, and time to reach the recruitment goal were evaluated.

Results: A total of 89 participants provided consent and underwent screening, and 68 participants were randomly assigned to the WELT-I group (n=33) or control group (n=35). Among them, 14 participants discontinued the trial, leaving 54 participants who completed the study and were included in the final analysis (28 in the WELT-I group and 26 in the control group). WELT-I significantly improved sleep efficiency (least-squares difference=8.28; P=.04) and dysfunctional beliefs about sleep (least-squares difference=-1.03; P=.008) compared with the sham app. The study completed recruitment in 73 days, and the compliance rate was 95% (186/196) in the WELT-I group and 91% (165/182) in the control group. Moreover, the retention rate was 82% (23/28), and the average satisfaction score was 7.2 out of 10.

Conclusions: WELT-I showed significant therapeutic efficacy and safety in improving sleep efficiency and sleep-related dysfunctional attitudes in cases of insomnia. In addition, this study demonstrated the feasibility of DCTs, and the findings of rapid recruitment, high compliance and retention rates, and strong participant satisfaction suggest that DCTs have sufficient potential to be expanded to clinical studies verifying the efficacy of other DTx-Is in the future.