Educating carers of patients with advanced pulmonary disease

Health, economic, psychological and social impact of educating carers of patients with advanced pulmonary disease (APD).

Status

Recruiting

Phases

Unknown

Study type

Interventional

Source

ANZCTR

Registry ID

ACTRN12607000177459

Enrollment

300

Registered

2007-03-21

Start date

2007-09-17

Completion date

Unknown

Last updated

2020-01-13

For informational purposes only — not medical advice. Sourced from public registries and may not reflect the latest updates. Terms

Conditions

None listed

Brief summary

Our study aims to understand the health, economic and social costs associated with caring for patients with advanced pulmonary disease (APD) and to determine health, economic and social impact of improving the skills of caregivers of patients with APD has on patients and their carers. Patients with APD are a large population at high risk of health resource use, unnecessary medication use and emergency admission to hospital or residential care facilities. Although previous research has identified difficulties experienced by caregivers of the elderly in general, very little research has been undertaken with carers of patients with APD. The study will compare the usual practice of educating patients with APD who commence home oxygen therapy (HOT), and their carers, against a more detailed and individually targeted education program that increases the skills of patients and carers. This study has the potential to reduce hospital/residential care readmission, reduce carer distress, improve patient outcomes, reduce adverse effects of oxygen therapy and medication use, and minimize inappropriate presentation to tertiary care emergency departments.

Interventions

The second home visit will occur 6 - 8 weeks after the first home visit.

Study design

Allocation

Randomised controlled trial

Intervention model

Parallel

Primary purpose

Educational / counselling / training

Masking

Blinded (masking used)

Eligibility

Sex/Gender

All

Age

18 Years to No maximum

Healthy volunteers

Inclusion criteria

Patient inclusion criteria: patients who are receiving HOT (this includes those already on HOT and any new patients to commence HOT during the study period) and who live in independent accommodation; have at least one carer and receive informal care; are in a stable phase of pulmonary disease with no other life limiting illness. Carer inclusion criteria: primary care giver of the patient; able to complete written assessments.

Exclusion criteria

Patient exclusion criteria: are patients receiving palliative oxygen for severe heart disease or for terminal cancer; and those patients who use oxygen for emergency use in life-threatening asthma. There will be no exclusion criteria for carers.

Outcome results