The absence of social relationships negatively affects physical, psychological, and social health. In other words, it alters people's quality of life and makes active aging difficult. The investigators have designed a study to reduce unwanted loneliness and improve the living with process of family caregivers of people with Alzheimer disease through multiple interventions (music therapy, health education)
This project proposes a multimodal and interdisciplinary intervention aimed at alleviating or reducing unwanted loneliness and improving the living with process of family caregivers of individuals with Alzheimer's disease (AD). In doing so, it seeks to enhance their health and overall quality of life. The intervention will include activities such as health education, physical activity and music therapy. The interdisciplinary team will also incorporate citizen participation, specifically through the involvement of an individual who has previously been a family caregiver of a person with AD. There is a growing body of evidence indicating that citizen participation in healthcare is highly advisable, as it is expected to improve the quality and relevance of outcomes. This is a prospective, longitudinal, analytical, and experimental study. The proposed study will involve different groups and the program will last for a total of 12 weeks. The program will include the following activities: Physical exercise adapted to the physical conditions of each participant. Total of 12 sessions. Health education workshops. A total of 12 workshops. These will include group training talks on the following topics: sleep hygiene, diet, and cognitive stimulation, Alzheimer disease, among others. Music therapy workshops. Through listening to songs, singing, dancing, guided relaxation with music, and group instrumental performance, the enjoyment and expression of feelings will be encouraged. There will be 1 session per week. Total 12 sessions
Study Type
INTERVENTIONAL
Allocation
NON_RANDOMIZED
Purpose
HEALTH_SERVICES_RESEARCH
Masking
NONE
Enrollment
50
The multimodal intervention will include these activities: 1. Health education workshops 2. Music therapy sessions 3. Physical exercise adapted to the physical conditions of each participant.
University of Valencia
Valencia, Valencia, Spain
Score on the Jong Gierveld Lonelinss Scale
Loneliness Scale Social isolation will be measured with the Jong Gierveld Loneliness Scale. The final score is the total score for the 11 items, with the lowest possible score being 0 (no loneliness) and the highest being 11 (severe loneliness). Three categories have been proposed based on the score: a score of 0-2 points = no loneliness; a score of 3-8 points = moderate loneliness; and a score of 9-11 points = severe loneliness.
Time frame: From the beginning of the enrollement until the end of the intervention at 12 weeks
Living with chronic conditions from the family perspective
Living with LTCs scale from the perspective of the family caregiver (EC- PC- Fam). This is an instrument adapted from the original EC- PC.29-31 The adaptation process of the instrument and prior pilot study have been previously described in detail.23 The validated version has 31 items and 5 domains: (1) acceptance, (2) coping, (3) self- management, (4) integration and (5) adaptation. All the items follow a Likert scale of 5 points answer system, from never or none (0) to always and much (4), except for the items from the acceptance domain, which must be inverted to obtain results such as never or none (4) or always or much (0). The scores range from 0 to 155, with a higher score indicating more positive living with LTCs.
Time frame: From the enrollment to the end of the intervention at 12 weeks
Score in Goldberg Anxiety and Depression Scale.
The symptoms of anxiety and depression will be measured with the Goldberg Anxiety and Depression Scale. This is a questionnaire that discriminates between the diagnosis of anxiety and depression and measures their retrospective intensities. It consists of two subscales: one for anxiety and one for depression. Each subscale is composed of 9 dichotomous response items (YES or NO) to determine whether the subject has had any of the indicated symptoms in the last two weeks. The cut-off points are 4 or more items or affirmative responses for the anxiety scale and 2 or more for the depression scale. The higher the score, the greater the severity of the problem, with a maximum possible score of 9 points for each subscale.
Time frame: From enrollement until the end of the intervention ar 12 weeks
The score in the EuroQQL-5
The EuroQOL- 5 Dimensions 5- Level version (EQ- 5D- 5L) is an instrument designed to generically measure HRQOL, which can be used by both a healthy population and an individual with pathologies. The instrument developed by the EUROQOL group32 has been validated in many countries, including Spain.33 34 Different versions can be found, and in the present study, the EQ- 5D- 5L was selected due to the increase in the specificity of the responses as compared with the EQ- 5D- 3L. It is a self- administered instrument in which individuals assess their own health, first in a descriptive manner for each of the dimensions (mobility, personal care, everyday activities, pain/ discomfort and anxiety/depression), with five levels, from 0 to 5, and then with a more general Visual Analogical Scale. For the Spanish context, the psycho metric properties of the EQ- 5D- 5L scale were analysed in patients35 with the results indicating a reliability of 0.86.
Time frame: From enrollement until the end of the intervention at 12 weeks
Score in Zarit Test for caregiver burden
Zarit test: This scale is included to verify the external validity (divergent validity) of the EC- PC- Fam. This scale, originally named Caregiver Burden Interview, is designed to assess the burden of caregivers of indi viduals with dementia, from the general theory of the items39. It has 22 items that evaluate the negative repercussions on specific areas of daily life associated with caregiving: physical health, psychological health, social activities and economic resources. As opposed to the original, the version validated in Spain40 includes a 5- point Likert scale, for a total score that ranges from 22 to 110. In this study, different cut- off points were proposed: from 22 to 46, without burden; from 47 to 55, with burden and from 56 to 110, intense burden. The scale obtained an internal consistency of 0.91 and test-retest reliability of 0.96.
Time frame: From enrollement until the end of the intervention at 12 weeks
This platform is for informational purposes only and does not constitute medical advice. Always consult a qualified healthcare professional.