Depression
Conditions
Keywords
Depression, Family functioning, Family Focused Nursing, Quality of life
Brief summary
The purpose of this study is to determine whether Family Focused Nursing are effective in the treatment of elderly medical patients with respect to prevalence of depression
Detailed description
Psychosocial issues such as lack of social support and symptoms of depression, are risk factors associated to readmission for elderly medical patients. Families with elderly members in general want to be involved in the caring and want to maintain a close relation to their elderly family member. However, disease in a single family can have a negative effect on all members and may result in dysfunction of the family. International guidelines recommend that the patient's relatives are involved in patient education as well as the treatment. Family interventions might contribute to decline depression and readmissions, besides enhanced quality of life and family function among elderly medical patients and their next of kin.
Interventions
BEHAVIORALFamily Focused Nursing
All patients receive treatment as usual. Additionally, patients in the intervention arm receives family focused nursing consultations which are structured as sessions focusing on change, improvement and/or maintenance of family function within cognitive, affective and behavioral knowledge. Each session is organized and individualized according to the wishes and needs for education and counseling of the families within a period of one months.
Sponsors
University Hospital, Gentofte, Copenhagen
University of Southern Denmark
Study design
Allocation
RANDOMIZED
Intervention model
PARALLEL
Primary purpose
SUPPORTIVE_CARE
Masking
DOUBLE (Investigator, Outcomes Assessor)
Eligibility
Sex/Gender
ALL
Age
65 Years to No maximum
Healthy volunteers
No
Inclusion criteria
* acute hospitalized * an expected hospitalization of minimum two days * speak and understand Danish * signed informed consent
Exclusion criteria
* dementia (evaluated by the Mini Mental State Examination \[MMSE\] \< 24) * terminally ill patients whose survival rate is assessed to be less than a month
Design outcomes
Primary
| Measure | Time frame | Description |
|---|---|---|
| Change in depressive symptoms assessed by 9 points measured on the Geriatric Depression Scale | Baseline, 7 days and 6 months after the intervention | The effect of intervention on primary outcome are investigated as longitudinal data at seven days and six month. The data are analysed using mixed models |
Secondary
| Measure | Time frame | Description |
|---|---|---|
| Change in family function score on Brief Family Assessment Measure III | 7 days and 6 months | The effect of intervention on secondary outcome are investigated as longitudinal |
| Change in health related quality of life on Medical Outcomes Study Short Form, SF-8 | 7 days and 6 months | The effect of intervention on secondary outcome are investigated as longitudinal |
| Change in time spent between hospitalization | 7 days and 6 months | The effect of intervention on secondary outcome are investigated as longitudinal |
Countries
Denmark
Outcome results
None listed