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Completed

NCT Number: NCT00764647

Education Program for Family Caregivers

The purpose of this evaluation was to determine the effectiveness of an educational program designed to assist family caregivers to learn the knowledge and skills to take better care of their frail elder relatives and themselves.

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Key information

Conditions

Stress Behavior Behavioral Symptoms Caregiver Burden Stress, Psychological

Age range

18 year and older

Sex eligibility

All sexes

Study type

Interventional

Phase

Not applicable

Primary location

West Virginia University Robert C. Byrd Health Sciences Center, Charleston Division

Charleston, West Virginia, 25304, United States

About this study

Spouses, children, and other family members typically care for frail elderly persons. These family caregivers attempt to provide care for their relative in the home, despite the potential for excessive stress to themselves. This care may extend over many years, involving unrelenting management of their relative, which puts the caregiver at risk for the development of physical and mental health consequences. The stress of caring for a frail elder may result in the institutionalization of the care receiver due to declining health or abilities in the caregiver as caregivers frequently continue to provide care at the expense of their own health. The goal of the education program is to fill an important need, that is, assist caregivers to become empowered, hardier, and have the ability to cope with the stress associated with caregiving. The aim is to investigate whether this educational intervention improves selected outcomes for family caregivers of frail elders. The selected outcomes are knowledge of caregiving, hardiness, quality of life, physical health, depressive symptoms, burden, and coping.

Who can participate

Healthy volunteers accepted: Yes

Only the study team can determine whether someone qualifies for participation.

Inclusion criteria

  • 18 years of age and older
  • family member participating in care of a frail elder (60 years and older)

Exclusion criteria

  • unable to speak or read English (materials are written in English)

Treatment and study plan

Education program for family caregivers of frail elders

Behavioral

Family caregiver participants in the educational program will receive an educational course presented by the investigator that focuses on the care of the frail elder and themselves. The course will involve four to five consecutive weekly sessions, each 2 1/2 to 3 hours long. The educational program will be offered biannually, spring and fall seasons.

Primary outcomes

  1. Hardiness (change over time)

    Time frame: pre-intervention, immediate post-intervention, six-month post-intervention, and twelve-month post intervention

    Hardiness was measured using the Psychological Hardiness Scale, a 40 item scale (Younkin & Betz, 1996). Responses for each item were obtained on a 5-point Likert continuum from "Strongly Disagree" (1) to Strongly Agree (5).

Secondary outcomes

  1. Knowledge of Caregiving (change over time)

    Time frame: pre-intervention, immediate post-intervention, six-month post-intervention, and twelve-month post intervention

    Knowledge about caregiving was operationalized by total score on a content-specific test (17 items) for the family caregivers' educational program that measured knowledge and behaviors. True/false answers were given to items.

  2. Quality of Life (change over time)

    Time frame: pre-intervention, immediate post-intervention, six-month post-intervention, and twelve-month post intervention

    Quality of life measured using a Cantril (1965) ladder scale. The participants viewed a picture of a ladder with nine rungs, with the top rung labeled "best possible life" (9) and the bottom rung labeled "worst possible life (0).

  3. Physical and Mental Health (change over time)

    Time frame: pre-intervention, immediate post-intervention, six-month post-intervention, and twelve-month post intervention

    The SF-36v2 Health Survey (Ware & Sherboume, 1992), a 36-item self-report scale was used to measure the caregiver's view of their health.

  4. Depressive Symptomatology (change over time)

    Time frame: pre-intervention, immediate post-intervention, six-month post-intervention, and twelve-month post intervention

    The Center for Epidemiologic Studies-Depression Scale (CES-D; Radloff, 1977), a 20 item self report scale, was used to measure depressive symptomatology. Participants rated how frequently each symptom occurred during the past week on a scale ranging from rarely or none of the time (0) to most or all of the time (3).

  5. Caregiver Burden (change over time)

    Time frame: pre-intervention, immediate post-intervention, six-month post-intervention, and twelve-month post intervention

    The Caregiver Burden Inventory (CBI), developed by Novak and Guest (1989), a 24-item multidimensional measure was used to measure caregiver burden. This inventory includes five factors: Time-dependence burden, Developmental burden, physical burden, Social burden, and Emotional burden.

  6. Coping (change over time)

    Time frame: pre-intervention, immediate post-intervention, six-month post-intervention, and twelve-month post intervention

    The Jalowiec Coping Scale (JCS) (Jalowiec, Murphy, & Powers, 1984) was used to measure coping mechanisms. There are 60 items classified into 8 different coping styles: confrontive, evasive, optimistic, fatalistic, emotive, palliative, supportant, and self-reliant.

Sponsors and collaborators

Lead sponsor

CAMC Health System

Other

Registry information

Official study title

Evaluation of Education Program for Family Caregivers of Frail Elders

Important dates

Study start
2006
Primary completion
2011
Study completion
2017
First posted
Oct 2, 2008
Registry last updated
Jul 7, 2017

OpenTrials presents study information sourced from ClinicalTrials.gov. The official registry record should be consulted for the latest information.

View the official ClinicalTrials.gov record (opens in a new tab)

This listing is for discovery and informational purposes only. It is not medical advice, does not guarantee that a study is recruiting, and does not determine eligibility. Contact the study team and a qualified healthcare professional when considering participation.

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