Online Caregiver Psychoeducation and Support for Alzheimer's

Phase 2

Completed

Conditions: Alzheimer's Disease

Interventions: Behavioral: caregiver brief supportive phone calls
Behavioral: caregiver website support

Registration Number: NCT00416078

Lead Sponsor: US Department of Veterans Affairs

Brief Summary: This study is piloting an internet-based intervention to provide support for caregivers of VA patients with Alzheimer's disease or related memory difficulties (ADRD). Veterans with a clinical diagnosis of ADRD and their caregiver/relatives will be randomized to receive one of two interventions: (1) customary care (cc) and access to an intensive, interactive online education and support website intervention for 6 months, or (2) cc and monthly brief telephone calls with project staff for six month. It is hypothesized that participation in the intensive intervention will result in a reductions in patient problematic behavior and caregiver responses to it, reduced caregiver burden and depression, and improved medication adherence at the end of treatment, and more patients remaining at home through the 12 months post-randomization period..

Detailed Description: Alzheimer's disease (AD) is a progressive brain disease resulting in cognitive and functional decline. While some pharmacological agents and behavioral programs are now available to slow the rate of decline, there is no cure. Caregivers, who typically are the female spouses or daughters of afflicted individuals, must confront both the deterioration of a loved one, and that person's need for increasingly demanding care. Caregivers tend to experience high levels of depression, anxiety, and burden. Data suggest that providing education, social support, and ongoing professional consultation to families involved in the care of a relative with AD results in improvement in caregiver psychological status, and sometimes even slows the functional decline of the patient.

Recent technological advancements in video conferencing, online communication, and streaming audio/video presentations, which are increasingly easy to use and gaining widespread acceptance among mental health professionals as well as the public, have given rise to a great deal of interest in telemedicine and telepsychiatry. This study tested an Internet-based family intervention for AD that relatives can access from their homes with ease, and at no cost. In addition to improving patient outcomes through instruction of effective behavioral management, we proposed that participation in an Internet program would also reduce caregiver depression and burden. Fifty-three veterans with a clinical diagnosis of AD and their caregiver/relatives were randomized to receive one of two interventions: (1) customary care (cc) and access to an intensive, interactive online education and support website intervention for 6 months, or (2) cc and monthly brief telephone calls with project staff for 6 months. We hypothesized that, at the end of the active intervention, participation in the intensive intervention would result reduced patient problematic behavior, caregiver burden, depression, and negative responses to problematic patient behaviors, as well as improved patient medication compliance. At 12 month follow-up, we hypothesized access to the online program would result in more patients remaining at home. The overriding longterm project objective was to develop an effective online education and support program for caregivers of patients with AD that can be manualized, replicated, and disseminated to other clinical and research centers, within both the VA health care system and the community, to enhance the efficiency and effectiveness of psychosocial treatment in AD.

Recruitment & Eligibility

Status: COMPLETED

Sex: All

Target Recruitment: 53

Inclusion Criteria

Patient living in community and ambulatory
Patient has diagnosis of Alzheimer's disease
Patient age 50-95
Caregiver age 18-90
Patient currently under treatment for Alzheimer's disease
Patient and caregiver reside within 2 hours of Los Angeles
Caregiver has home internet access
Patient has close contact with caregiver

Exclusion Criteria

Patient lives in residential setting
No family contact
Acute illness or chronic disease in patient or caregiver
Patient or caregiver plans to leave area within the year

Study & Design

Study Type: INTERVENTIONAL

Study Design: PARALLEL

Arm && Interventions

Group	Intervention	Description
caregiver brief supportive phone calls	caregiver brief supportive phone calls	caregiver brief supportive telephone calls for 6 months embedded in one year of customary care
caregiver website support	caregiver website support	caregiver access to website support for 6 months embedded in one year of customary care

Primary Outcome Measures

Name	Time	Method
Change in Caregiver Burden From Baseline	baseline to end-of-treatment (6 months)	Total score on the Zarit Short Burden Scale, a 12 item instrument that utilizes a likert scale 1-5 rating of frequency. The range is 12 (never) to 60 (nearly always) wherein higher scores are more indicative of caregiver burden.
Change in Frequency of Patient Problematic Behavioral Patterns From Baseline	baseline to end of treatment (6 months)	Total Score on the Frequency of Problematic Behaviors on the Revised Memory and Behavior Problem Checklist. The Revised Memory and Behavior Checklist is a 24 item instrument that measures the frequency of a behavior on a 0-4 likert scale wherein higher numbers indicate greater frequency. The range is 0-96.
Change in Caregiver Negative Reactions to Problematic Behavioral Patterns From Baseline	baseline to end of treatment (6 months)	Total Score on the Negative Reactions Scale from the Revised Memory and Behavior Problem Checklist. The scale measures the caregiver's level of reaction to a series of potential problematic behaviors on a 0-4 likert scale; higher numbers indicate a greater degree of distress. The range is 0-96.
Change in Caregiver Depression From Baseline	baseline to end-of-treatment (6 months)	Total score on the Beck Depression Inventory. The Beck Depression Inventory is a 21 item likert scale instrument with a total range of 0 to 63. Higher scores are indicative of increased endorsement of depressive symptoms. Additionally, it utilizes a cutoff score of13 to indicate probable depression

Secondary Outcome Measures

Name	Time	Method
Change in Caregiver Report of Patient Medication Adherence From Baseline	baseline to end-of-treatment (6 months)	Adherence to prescribed medication regimen rated by caregiver on a 1 (0%) to 5 (100%) scale. Higher scores indicate better adherence. Values in statistical table below are least square estimates, and thus may be slightly out-of-range of actual respondent choices on scale.