Caregiving Appraisal, Dementia Caregiver, Depressive Symptoms
Conditions
Brief summary
This study aims to assess the efficacy of telephone-coached graphic narrative bibliotherapy in improving dementia caregiver depressive symptoms compared with the booklet group.
Detailed description
This is a two-arm cluster randomized controlled trial using a repeated-measures design to examine the effects of telephone-coached graphic narrative bibliotherapy on 128 (64 per group) informal caregivers of people with dementia. Participants in the intervention group will receive eight weekly telephone-coached graphic narrative bibliotherapy sessions, plus two face-to-face booster sessions and two follow-up sessions. The control group will receive an education booklet and check-in calls. Caregiver depressive symptoms, stress and anxiety, caregiving appraisal, care-recipient neuropsychiatric symptoms, and quality of life will be measured to test the intervention's effects immediately after completion and at a 6-month follow-up.
Interventions
OTHERTelephone coached graphic narrative bibliotherapy
Eight weekly sessions of telephone coached graphic narrative bibliotherapy
OTHERControl group
Reading educational booklet
Sponsors
The Hong Kong Polytechnic University
Study design
Allocation
RANDOMIZED
Intervention model
PARALLEL
Primary purpose
SUPPORTIVE_CARE
Masking
SINGLE (Outcomes Assessor)
Eligibility
Sex/Gender
ALL
Age
18 Years to No maximum
Healthy volunteers
No
Inclusion criteria
* provide unpaid care to a person diagnosed with early to moderate stage dementia; * provide at least 14 hours of care a week for at least 3 months * aged 18 years or above * able to read * have depressive symptoms * use a message application
Exclusion criteria
* with an unstable physical or mental condition * with cognitive impairment * receiving medical, psychological, or psychiatric treatment for depression * have been included in another interventional study
Design outcomes
Primary
| Measure | Time frame | Description |
|---|---|---|
| Changes in depressive symptoms | Pre-intervention, immediately post-intervention, 6 months post-intervention | Depressive symptoms will be measured with the Chinese version of the Depression Anxiety Stress Scale-21. It is a 4-point Likert scale consisting of 21 items that measure levels ofdepression, anxiety, and stress in participants. The total score ranges from 0-63, with the depression subscale score ranges from 0-21. Higher scores indicategreater severity of mental health problems. |
Secondary
| Measure | Time frame | Description |
|---|---|---|
| Changes in caregiving appraisal | Pre-intervention, immediately post-intervention, 6 months post-intervention | Caregiving appraisal will be assessed using the Caregiving Appraisal Scale. It is a 26-item Likert scale ranging from 1 (strongly disagree) to 5 (strongly agree). The score ranges from 26 to 130. Higher scores on this scale indicate more positive caregiving appraisal. |
| Changes in stress and anxiety | Pre-intervention, immediately post-intervention, 6 months post-intervention | Stress and anxiety will be measured with the stress and anxiety subscales of the Depression, anxiety and stress scale-21 (DASS-21). The total score of the full scale ranges from 0-63, with the anxiety and stress subscale score both range from 0-21. |
| Changes in patient neuropsychiatric symptoms | Pre-intervention, immediately post-intervention, 6 months post-intervention | Patient neuropsychiatric symptoms: will be measured with the Neuropsychiatric Inventory (NPI). NPI evaluates 12 common neuropsychiatric disturbances in dementia. The presence of problematic behaviors in each domain is assessed by asking an informant a screening question followed by a series of yes/no questions. The frequency of a symptom is created from 1 (rarely) to 4 (very often), and severity is rated from 1 (mild) to 3 (severe). |
| Changes in quality of life | Pre-intervention, immediately post-intervention, 6 months post-intervention | Quality of life will be measured with the Brief Older People's Quality of Life Questionnaire (OPQOL-Brief). It is a 13-item, 5-point Likert scale to measure the quality of life for older adults. The total score ranges from 13 to 65, with higher scores indicating a better quality of life. |
Countries
Hong Kong
Outcome results
None listed