Long term home care. Not Applicable N/A
Conditions
Interventions
Patients and main caregivers were allocated to either the intervention or control group, depending on whether or not they had access to home care services delivered in line with the new model by their
Sponsors
Ministry of Health (Spain)
Eligibility
Sex/Gender
All
Inclusion criteria
Inclusion criteria: Patients and caregivers initiating the Home Care (HC) programme launched by the Andalusian Healthcare Service and targeting some of the following population sub-groups: Sub-group 1: Terminally ill patients with advanced stage, progressive, incurable, multi-symptomatic disease with no reasonable chance of responding to specific treatment, with estimated survival not exceeding six months Sub-group 2: Dependent patients who require assistance for their daily activities (Activities of Daily Living [ADL]) and are immobilised at home, namely subjects not included in Sub-group 1 who, for whatever cause, are forced to spend most of their time in bed and/or require help to move, which prevents them from leaving home, except for rare exceptions Sub-group 3: Patients not included in Sub-groups 1 and 2, recently discharged from hospital, requiring home care during a short period of time, most likely for under two months Sub-group 4: Main caregivers for any of the patients described in the previous sub-groups
Exclusion criteria
Exclusion criteria: 1. Institutionalisation or change of residence to an area not covered by the study, thus preventing the minimum follow-up required 2. Hospitalisation for longer than seven days, except for terminally ill patients who were readmitted for disease stabilisation and symptom control Note: With these criteria in mind, the population potentially requiring home care services in the healthcare districts under the scope of the study was estimated at 1,032,333. Malaga with 50.93% of the total potential population was in a position to contribute the largest number of subjects to the study, followed by the Costa del Sol district with 20.46%, Almeria with 20.60% and lastly Granada with 8.55%.
Design outcomes
Secondary
| Measure | Time frame |
|---|---|
| 1. Caregiver burden (Zarit test) at 0, 2, 6 and 12 months 2. Family role/function (APGAR family test) at 0, 2, 6 and 12 months 3. Cognitive function (Pfeiffer test) at 0, 2, 6 and 12 months 4. Quality of life (Euro-QoL 5D) at 0, 2 and 6 months 5. Institutionalisation 6. Mortality 7. Management of therapeutic regimen | — |
Primary
| Measure | Time frame |
|---|---|
| 1. Patient's functional capacity (Barthel and Lawton-Brody scales) at 0, 2, 6 and 12 months 2. Satisfaction (SATISFAD, specific questionnaire validated for assessment of satisfaction with home care services) at 2, 6 and 12 months 3. Hospital admissions 4. Accident & Emergency (A&E) visits 5. Home visits by nurses 6. Social worker interventions 7. Physiotherapy sessions 8. Caregiver visits to healthcare centre 9. Patient visits to healthcare centre | — |
Countries
Spain
Outcome results
None listed