Alzheimer Disease, Caregiver Burden, Family Caregivers, Quality of Life, Traumatic Brain Injury, Veterans
Conditions
Brief summary
This study will test the effectiveness of an intervention for Veterans diagnosed with Alzheimer's Disease (AD) or Traumatic Brain Injury (TBI) and the burden on their informal (family/friend) caregiver.
Detailed description
The majority of people with Alzheimer's (AD) and Traumatic brain Injury (TBI) are cared for in primary care settings and receive significant amounts of care and assistance in activities of daily living from family members or friends. The ABC ANSWERS intervention will incorporate and integrate the common features of an evidence-based collaborative care model for brain care, while also attending to the implementation barriers of delivering care and skills to dyads of patients with AD and TBI and their family caregivers. The study team will conduct a 1-year randomized control trial (RCT) designed to improve the Quality of Life (QoL) of Veterans with AD and TBI, and their family caregivers, and decrease their family caregivers' burden. The dyads in the intervention group will receive primary care plus ABC ANSWERS. The control group will receive primary care.
Interventions
OTHERABC ANSWERS
Primary Care plus ABC ANSWERS
OTHERControl
Primary Care as usual
Sponsors
Richard L. Roudebush VA Medical Center
Cleveland State University
Indiana University
Study design
Allocation
RANDOMIZED
Intervention model
PARALLEL
Primary purpose
HEALTH_SERVICES_RESEARCH
Masking
SINGLE (Outcomes Assessor)
Masking description
The outcomes assessor is blinded to which arm a dyad is enrolled.
Eligibility
Sex/Gender
ALL
Age
18 Years to 90 Years
Healthy volunteers
No
Inclusion criteria
* Veterans: 1)Diagnosis of AD or TBI 2) Receives Primary Care from Veterans Administration Medical Center (VAMC) * Caregivers: 1) Primary caregiver (family or friend) of a Veteran with AD or TBI 2) Plans to provide care for 1 year or longer * Both: 1) Over 18 years of age 2) Speak and understand English 3) access to telephone
Exclusion criteria
* Veterans: 1) Resides in nursing home or long term care facility 2) currently receiving care in GRACE clinic 3) Enrolled in ANSWERS-VA research study * Caregivers: 1) Does not consider him/herself a caregiver for Veteran 2) Serious medical illness limiting ability to participate * Both: Unable to contact within 10 calls Age \< 18 years Either caregiver or Veteran denies that they have AD or a TBI Either the caregiver or Veteran does not want to participate Not fluent in the English language Difficulty hearing or talking by telephone Has a terminal illness (e.g., cancer, end of life condition with decreased life expectancy, renal failure requiring dialysis) History of hospitalization for alcohol or drug abuse History of severe mental illness (e.g., suicidal tendencies, severe untreated depression or bipolar disorder, or schizophrenia) Prisoner or on house arrest
Design outcomes
Primary
| Measure | Time frame | Description |
|---|---|---|
| Change from baseline Caregivers Quality of Life at 12 months | Baseline to 12 months | Measure of quality of life using the 12 item Logsdon's Quality of Life scale. Items are scored on a scale from 0-3, poor to excellent. The higher the score, the better the reporting of item. |
Secondary
| Measure | Time frame | Description |
|---|---|---|
| Change from baseline Caregiver Burden at 12 months | Baseline to 12 months | Caregiver burden is measured using the Oberst Caregiver Burden Scale (OCBS). This is a valid 15 item questionnaire that rates 15 different types of caregiving tasks for informal caregivers based on perceived time and difficulty of the task. For each item the caregiver chooses a value from not difficult(0) to extremely difficult (5). Scores are averaged across 15 items of the time and difficulty subscales, thus achieving a score between 1 and 5 for each. |
| Change from baseline Veteran depression at 12 months | Baseline to 12 months | Measure of Veteran depression using the Center for Epidemilogic Scale -Depression (CESD).This is a twenty item questionnaire comprising of six scales reflecting major facets of depression. Possible range of scores is zero to 60, with the higher scores indicating the presence of more symptomatology. |
| Change from baseline Caregiver depression at 12 months | Baseline to12 months | Measure of Caregiver depression using the Center for Epidemilogic Scale -Depression (CESD).This is a twenty item questionnaire comprising of six scales reflecting major facets of depression. Possible range of scores is zero to 60, with the higher scores indicating the presence of more symptomatology. |
| Change from baseline Veterans Quality of Life at 12 months | Baseline to 12 months | Measure of quality of life using the 12 item Logsden's Quality of Life scale. Items are scored on a scale from 0-3, poor to excellent. The higher the score, the better the reporting of item. |
| Change from Caregiver anxiety at 12 months | Baseline to 12 months | Measure of anxiety using the Generalized Anxiety Disorder Scale (GAD-7). This is a seven item anxiety scale with a total score from 0-21. Items are scored from Not at all (0) to Nearly everyday (3). The higher the score, the more often anxiety symptoms are endorsed. |
| Change from Caregiver dyadic strain at 12 months | Baseline to 12 months | This is a 12 item scale ranging from strongly agree (3) to strongly disagree (0). The higher the score the more the respondent agrees or endorses relationship strain. |
| Change from baseline Veteran anxiety at 12 months | Baseline to 12 months | Measure of anxiety using the Generalized Anxiety Disorder Scale (GAD-7). This is a seven item anxiety scale with a total score from 0-21. Items are scored from Not at all (0) to Nearly everyday (3). The higher the score, the more often anxiety symptoms are endorsed. |
Countries
United States
Outcome results
None listed