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.
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
Study Type
INTERVENTIONAL
Allocation
RANDOMIZED
Purpose
TREATMENT
Masking
DOUBLE
Enrollment
96
Activity scheduling, monitoring, review and re-scheduling
Education on dementia, caregiving stress, event scheduling and communication skills
Depressive Symptoms
Measured by CES-D
Time frame: Change from baseline through study completion, an average of about 5 months
Sense of Burden
Measured by Zarit Burden Scale
Time frame: Change from baseline through study completion, an average of about 5 months
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