Clinical trial NCT03030027: Connecting Through Caregiving: Reappraising Intergeneration Relationships
Official title: Connecting Through Caregiving: Reappraising Intergeneration Relationships for Dementia Caregivers
Study type: INTERVENTIONAL
Overall status: UNKNOWN
Phase: NA
Conditions: Dementia
Keywords: Intergeneration
Reappraisal
Caregiving
Lead sponsor: The Hong Kong Polytechnic University
Sponsor class: OTHER
First posted: 2017-01-24
Enrollment: 80
Sex: FEMALE
Minimum age (years): 18
Maximum age (years): 65
Standard ages: ADULT
OLDER_ADULT
Accepts healthy volunteers: yes
Allocation: RANDOMIZED
Intervention model: PARALLEL
Primary purpose: TREATMENT

Brief summary: The purpose of the present study is to examine the effects of perspective-taking reappraisals on the well-being of adult-child dementia caregivers.

Detailed description: Dementia caregiving presents a particular challenge wherein the adult child is parenting his or her parents. Facilitating relational insights, the key components of the Connecting Through Caregiving (CTC) intervention involves the following: 1) enhancing self-awareness of the caregiver, 2) developing interpersonal empathy of the care-recipient, 3) help-seeking, 4) balancing self-care and caring for others and 5) negotiating action plans. The CTC intervention is be evaluated against a basic skill training intervention consisting of scheduling pleasant events, communicating with the care recipient and other family members. Dementia caregivers providing at least 14 hours of care per week to a parent living with dementia are recruited and randomized into one the two conditions. The intervention lasts for six weeks for both conditions. Intervention in the first week consists of a home visit and a telephone follow-up. From the second to fifth week, there are weekly four telephone phone sessions. In the sixth week, there were two more telephone calls to consolidate the intervention and to review implementation plans.

Eligibility criteria: Inclusion Criteria:

* The study participants will be primary caregivers aged 18 or older and who have been caring for persons (aged 60 or above) with a physician diagnosis of Alzheimer's disease in the mild to moderate range as determined by the Clinical Dementia Rating Scale.
* Primary caregivers are those who have been providing unpaid care for more than 14 hours a week for at least the past three months.
* The care should involve day-to-day decision-making as well as any of the following: feeding, dressing, bathing, toileting, housework, preparing meals, medication and handling finances.
* They can be daughter/son or daughter-/son-in-law of the care recipients.

Exclusion Criteria:

* Exclusion criteria are as follows: signs of severe intellectual deficits, demonstrated suicidal ideation, exhibited evidence of psychotic disorders, hearing/ visual impairment or inability to read or speak Chinese/Cantonese fluently and severe.

Primary outcomes:
measure: Change in Life Satisfaction (LS): scale
timeFrame: Change from Baseline LS through study completion, an average of 2 months
measure: Change in Center for Epidemiologic Studies Depressive Scale (CESD)
timeFrame: Change from Baseline CESD through study completion, an average of 2 months
Secondary outcomes:
measure: Change in Zarit Burden Interview (ZBI)
timeFrame: Change from Baseline ZBI through study completion, an average of 2 months
Other outcomes:
Locations:
city: Kowloon
country: Hong Kong
facility: Institute of Active Ageing
Study officials:
affiliation: Hong Kong Polytechnic University
name: Alma Au, {PhD
role: PRINCIPAL_INVESTIGATOR
References: