Mindfulness-Based Intervention for Caregivers of Frail Older Chinese Adults

The Hong Kong Polytechnic University240 enrolled

Overview

This is study to investigate the effects of a brief mindfulness-based program for frail older adults caregivers.

The proposed study is a multi-site, three-arm randomized controlled trial of a mindfulness-based intervention for Chinese family caregivers in Hong Kong. Effects of the intervention will be compared with those of an evidence-based psychoeducation program, and treatment-as-usual. 240 caregivers of frail elderly with moderate to severe levels of frailty, will be recruited and randomly assigned to mindfulness-based intervention, psychoeducation, and treatment-as-usual experimental conditions. Overall program effectiveness will be analyzed on measures of caregiver burden, depression, anxiety, positive caregiving experience, spirituality, family conflict, and the biomarker of heart rate variability. Measures on coping styles, experiential avoidance, and self-efficacy will be explored to see if they mediate the changes to participant improvements in outcomes. 6-month follow-up will be included to investigate the maintenance effects.

Study Type

INTERVENTIONAL

Allocation

RANDOMIZED

Purpose

PREVENTION

Masking

NONE

Enrollment

240

Conditions

Frailty Caregiver Burnout

Interventions

Brief mindfulness based programBEHAVIORAL

An intervention promotes the acceptance and emotion regulation in caregiving for frail older adults

PsychoeducationBEHAVIORAL

An intervention promotes the coping and problem solving in caregiving for the frail older adults

Eligibility

Sex: ALLHealthy volunteers:

Medical Language ↔ Plain English

Inclusion Criteria: * Caregivers of frail elderly based on a professional's assessment of Clinical Frailty Scale with a score of 6, indicating a moderate level of frailty or above (Rockwood et al., 2005) * Caregivers being adult children or children in-law of the elder care receiver * Caregivers who are experiencing caregiver burden at the time of study, with scores of 8 or above in Zarit Burden Interview-4 Exclusion Criteria: * impairment, which may present difficulties in comprehending the content of the program * Spouses, siblings, or friends will be excluded * Caregivers of elders with moderate to severe dementia will be excluded and the Clinical Dementia Rating Scale will be administered * Caregivers who had participated in an eight week Mindfulness-Based Stress Reduction or equivalent

Locations (1)

The Hong Kong Polytechnic University

Hong Kong, Hong Kong

RECRUITING

Outcomes

Primary Outcomes

Depression

assessed by a self-reported measure The Center for Epidemiologic Studies Depression Scale, 10 items, sum of scores from 0 to 30, the higher the score, the more severe in the depression symptoms

Time frame: Change from pre-intervention, to 1-month follow-up, and to 6-month follow-up

Secondary Outcomes

Caregiver burden

assessed by a self-reported measure Zarit Burden Interview, 22 items, sum of scores from 0 to 88, the higher the score, the more severe in the caregiver burden

Time frame: Change from pre-intervention, to 1-month follow-up, and to 6-month follow-up.

Anxiety

assessed by a self-reported measure Hospital Anxiety and Depression Scale -Anxiety subscale, 7 items, sum of scores from 0 to 21, the higher the score, the more severe in the anxiety symptoms

Time frame: Change from pre-intervention, to 1-month follow-up, and to 6-month follow-up

Spiritual well-being

assessed by a self-reported measure Functional Assessment of Chronic Illness, 12 items, sum of scores from 0 to 48, the higher the score, the better the level in well-being Therapy-Spiritual Well-Being Scale

Time frame: Change from pre-intervention, to 1-month follow-up, and to 6-month follow-up.

family conflicts

assessed by a self-reported measure Revised Conflict Tactics Scale, 10 items, sum of scores from 0 to 40, the higher the score, the more severe in the level of family conflicts

Time frame: Change from pre-intervention, to 1-month follow-up, and to 6-month follow-up

Heart rate variability

measured by the CorSense Heart Rate Variability monitor, the higher the heart rate variability, the better the ability to self-regulate in response to stressful situations

Central Contacts

Herman, Hay-ming LO, PhD

CONTACT

+85296279830 herman.lo@polyu.edu.hk

Data from ClinicalTrials.gov

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