Articles: caregivers.
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Health Technol Assess · Mar 2008
Randomized Controlled Trial Clinical TrialDoes befriending by trained lay workers improve psychological well-being and quality of life for carers of people with dementia, and at what cost? A randomised controlled trial.
To determine whether a social support intervention (access to an employed befriending facilitator in addition to usual care) is effective compared with usual care alone. Also to document direct and indirect costs, and establish incremental cost-effectiveness. ⋯ 'Access to a befriender facilitator' is neither an effective nor a cost-effective intervention in the support of carers of people with dementia, although there is a suggestion of cost-effectiveness for the care dyad (carer and care recipient). In common with many services for carers of people with dementia, uptake of befriending services was not high. However, the small number of carers who engaged with befrienders for 6 months or more reported a reduction in scores on HADS depression that approached statistical significance compared with controls (95% CI -0.09 to 2.84). While providing only weak evidence of any beneficial effect, further research into befriending interventions for carers is warranted.
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Randomized Controlled Trial
(Cost)-effectiveness of family meetings on indicated prevention of anxiety and depressive symptoms and disorders of primary family caregivers of patients with dementia: design of a randomized controlled trial.
Dementia is a major public health problem with enormous costs to society and major consequences for both patients and their relatives. Family members of persons with dementia provide much of the care for older adults with dementia in the community. Caring for a demented relative is not easy and fraught with emotional strain, distress, and physical exhaustion. Family caregivers of dementia patients have an extremely high risk developing affective disorders such as major depression and anxiety disorder. Family meetings appear to be among the most powerful psychosocial interventions to reduce depression in caregivers. An American landmark study reported substantial beneficial effects of a multifaceted intervention where family meetings had a central place on depression in family caregivers as well as on delay of institutionalization of patients. These effects were not replicated in other countries yet. We perform the first trial comparing only structured family meetings with significant others versus usual care among primary family caregivers of community dwelling demented patients and measure the effectiveness on both depression and anxiety in the primary caregiver, both on disorder and symptom levels. ⋯ By evaluating the effectiveness of only structured family meetings organized in the Netherlands, this study will contribute to the existing literature about the value of psychosocial interventions for dementia caregivers.
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Randomized Controlled Trial
Caregiver and health care provider satisfaction with volumetric bladder ultrasound.
Conventional (nonimaged) bladder catheterization has lower first-attempt success rates (67%-72%) when compared with catheterization aided by volumetric bladder ultrasonography (US) (92%-100%), yet the total time to urine sample collection with US can be quite lengthy. Given the advantage and disadvantages, the authors assessed caregiver and health care provider satisfaction with these two methods. ⋯ Caregivers in the conventional group rated their children's discomfort higher than did caregivers in the US group. Both caregivers and health care providers expressed greater satisfaction with US and were more likely to prefer this imaging modality with future catheterization attempts.
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Am J Geriatr Psychiatry · Sep 2007
Randomized Controlled TrialPreserving health of Alzheimer caregivers: impact of a spouse caregiver intervention.
The objective of this study was to determine the effects of counseling and support on the physical health of caregivers of spouses of people with Alzheimer disease. ⋯ Counseling and support preserved SRH in vulnerable caregivers. Enhancing caregivers' social support, fostering more benign appraisals of stressors, and reducing depressive symptoms may yield indirect health benefits. Psychosocial intervention studies with biological measures of physical health outcomes are warranted.
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Clinical rehabilitation · Feb 2007
Randomized Controlled TrialStress in caregivers of aphasic stroke patients: a randomized controlled trial.
Communication difficulties due to aphasia following stroke are particularly stressful to caregivers. ⋯ Stroke caregiver support, education and training programmes have short-term effects on caregiver stress levels but are likely to require ongoing involvement to maintain their effect.