Behavioral Activation for Dementia Caregivers: Scheduling Pleasant Events and Enhancing Communications
Overview
- Phase
- Not Applicable
- Intervention
- Not specified
- Conditions
- Dementia Caregivers
- Sponsor
- The Hong Kong Polytechnic University
- Enrollment
- 96
- Primary Endpoint
- Depressive Symptoms
- Status
- Completed
- Last Updated
- 6 years ago
Overview
Brief Summary
This project was designed to test a model targeted intervention for dementia caregivers telephone program consisting of both psychoeducation and behavioral activation components to reduce the burden of caregivers. The program is delivered by telephone to increase accessibility and sustainability for caregivers.
Detailed Description
The study compared two telephone interventions using a four-month longitudinal randomized controlled trial. For the first four weeks, all participants received the same psychoeducation program via telephone. Then for the following four months, eight biweekly telephone follow-up calls were carried out. For these eight follow-up calls, participants were randomized into either one of the two following groups with different conditions. For the Psychoeducation with BA (PsyED-BA) group, participants would receive eight biweekly sessions of BA practice focused on pleasant event scheduling and improving communications. For the Psychoeducation only (PsyED Only) group, there would be eight biweekly sessions of general discussion of psychoeducation and related information
Investigators
Eligibility Criteria
Inclusion Criteria
- •They were caregivers aged 25 or above and must have be caring for a care recipient diagnosed with Alzheimer's disease for at least 3 months. They should be the primary caregiver and a spouse, kin (e.g. daughter/son or daughter/son-in-law) or sibling of the care recipient.
Exclusion Criteria
- •To ensure intervention fidelity, participants who showed signs of severe intellectual deficits, demonstrate suicidal ideation, exhibit evidence of psychotic disorders, or cannot read or speak fluent Chinese / Cantonese were excluded.
Outcomes
Primary Outcomes
Depressive Symptoms
Time Frame: Change from baseline through study completion, an average of about 5 months
Measured by CES-D
Secondary Outcomes
- Sense of Burden(Change from baseline through study completion, an average of about 5 months)