This study will test the effectiveness of an intervention for Veterans diagnosed with Alzheimer's Disease (AD) or Traumatic Brain Injury (TBI) and the burden on their informal (family/friend) caregiver.
The majority of people with Alzheimer's (AD) and Traumatic brain Injury (TBI) are cared for in primary care settings and receive significant amounts of care and assistance in activities of daily living from family members or friends. The ABC ANSWERS intervention will incorporate and integrate the common features of an evidence-based collaborative care model for brain care, while also attending to the implementation barriers of delivering care and skills to dyads of patients with AD and TBI and their family caregivers. The study team will conduct a 1-year randomized control trial (RCT) designed to improve the Quality of Life (QoL) of Veterans with AD and TBI, and their family caregivers, and decrease their family caregivers' burden. The dyads in the intervention group will receive primary care plus ABC ANSWERS. The control group will receive primary care.
Study Type
INTERVENTIONAL
Allocation
RANDOMIZED
Purpose
HEALTH_SERVICES_RESEARCH
Masking
SINGLE
Enrollment
236
Primary Care plus ABC ANSWERS
Primary Care as usual
Richard L. Roudebush VAMC
Indianapolis, Indiana, United States
Change from baseline Caregivers Quality of Life at 12 months
Measure of quality of life using the 12 item Logsdon's Quality of Life scale. Items are scored on a scale from 0-3, "poor to excellent". The higher the score, the better the reporting of item.
Time frame: Baseline to 12 months
Change from baseline Veterans Quality of Life at 12 months
Measure of quality of life using the 12 item Logsden's Quality of Life scale. Items are scored on a scale from 0-3, "poor to excellent". The higher the score, the better the reporting of item.
Time frame: Baseline to 12 months
Change from baseline Caregiver Burden at 12 months
Caregiver burden is measured using the Oberst Caregiver Burden Scale (OCBS). This is a valid 15 item questionnaire that rates 15 different types of caregiving tasks for informal caregivers based on perceived time and difficulty of the task. For each item the caregiver chooses a value from not difficult(0) to extremely difficult (5). Scores are averaged across 15 items of the time and difficulty subscales, thus achieving a score between 1 and 5 for each.
Time frame: Baseline to 12 months
Change from baseline Veteran depression at 12 months
Measure of Veteran depression using the Center for Epidemilogic Scale -Depression (CESD).This is a twenty item questionnaire comprising of six scales reflecting major facets of depression. Possible range of scores is zero to 60, with the higher scores indicating the presence of more symptomatology.
Time frame: Baseline to 12 months
Change from baseline Caregiver depression at 12 months
Measure of Caregiver depression using the Center for Epidemilogic Scale -Depression (CESD).This is a twenty item questionnaire comprising of six scales reflecting major facets of depression. Possible range of scores is zero to 60, with the higher scores indicating the presence of more symptomatology.
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Time frame: Baseline to12 months
Change from baseline Veteran anxiety at 12 months
Measure of anxiety using the Generalized Anxiety Disorder Scale (GAD-7). This is a seven item anxiety scale with a total score from 0-21. Items are scored from "Not at all" (0) to "Nearly everyday" (3). The higher the score, the more often anxiety symptoms are endorsed.
Time frame: Baseline to 12 months
Change from Caregiver anxiety at 12 months
Measure of anxiety using the Generalized Anxiety Disorder Scale (GAD-7). This is a seven item anxiety scale with a total score from 0-21. Items are scored from "Not at all" (0) to "Nearly everyday" (3). The higher the score, the more often anxiety symptoms are endorsed.
Time frame: Baseline to 12 months
Change from Caregiver dyadic strain at 12 months
This is a 12 item scale ranging from strongly agree (3) to strongly disagree (0). The higher the score the more the respondent agrees or endorses relationship strain.
Time frame: Baseline to 12 months