Intervention in Informal Caregivers Who Care Older People After a Stroke: a Pilot Study in Northern Portugal (InCARE)

February 26, 2014 updated by: Odete Araújo, University of Minho

Supporting Older People's Informal CAREgivers at Home Through InCARE Programme

Background: More than 42% of older people (aged +65) have a stroke and most of them require some type of help to self-care at home. Informal caregivers have reported different types of need and have shown dissatisfaction with technical and emotional support delivered by community health teams. Furthermore, empowering informal caregivers who care after older stroke survivors is an important challenge, preventing them from negative outcomes such as burden, anxiety and depression or loss of physical function or hospitalization in older people.

Objectives: This pilot study aims to implement and evaluate the impact of an intervention based on training and telephone support delivered to informal caregivers who care after older people post-stroke.

Setting: Community health units in Northern Portugal region. Design/Methods: This single blinded randomized trial will be delivered by a community nursing team to informal caregivers 1 week, 1 and 3 months after a hospital discharge.

Study outcome(s): The primary outcomes will be informal caregivers´ empowerment. Secondary outcomes will include burden and health quality of life in caregivers; functionality, hospital readmission and institutionalization of older people stroke survivors, measured 1 and 3 months after intervention.

Results/Conclusion: Data collection started in February and will be concluded in August 2014. First results will be published at the beginning of 2015. The InCARE programme will be the first pilot in informal caregivers study ever conducted in Portugal. It will highlight new ways to support caregivers who take care of older people after a stroke. If successful, this study will be translational and it will also allow to disseminate the results in Portugal and abroad and implement it as best practice.

Study Overview

Status

Unknown

Conditions

Intervention / Treatment

Detailed Description

InCare study has a purpose to implement and evaluate an intervention delivered to informal caregivers who care for older people after a stroke.

Study Type

Interventional

Enrollment (Actual)

158

Phase

  • Not Applicable

Contacts and Locations

This section provides the contact details for those conducting the study, and information on where this study is being conducted.

Study Locations

  • Portugal
    • Norte
      • Braga, Norte, Portugal, 4755-577
        • Odete Araújo

Participation Criteria

Researchers look for people who fit a certain description, called eligibility criteria. Some examples of these criteria are a person's general health condition or prior treatments.

Eligibility Criteria

Ages Eligible for Study

65 years and older (Older Adult)

Accepts Healthy Volunteers

No

Genders Eligible for Study

All

Description

Inclusion Criteria:

Informal caregivers are eligible to participate in the InCARE programme if they meet the following inclusion criteria: (i) to be able to communicate and learn (2) not to have a cognitive disease; (3) to live in the Cávado Region covered by ACES I, II and III; (4) to return the informed consent. In addition, older stroke survivors will enter in this study if they had a stroke for the 1st time and which have become dependent for activities of daily living.

-

Exclusion Criteria:

Involvement in the InCARE programme requires to communicate frequently, face to face or on the phone, with the nursing staff. Informal caregivers will also be excluded in all the situations in which the provision of older people care is taken by formal support.

Study Plan

This section provides details of the study plan, including how the study is designed and what the study is measuring.

How is the study designed?

Design Details

  • Primary Purpose: Supportive Care
  • Allocation: N/A
  • Interventional Model: Single Group Assignment
  • Masking: Single

Arms and Interventions

Participant Group / Arm
Intervention / Treatment
Other: training capacity in caregivers
The participants of the InCARE programme (intervention group) will receive, additionally, intervention based on: (i) empowering caregivers to put "hands on" caring, which will be the key-point of the pilot programme; (ii) training handling techniques: mobility, bathing, (un)dressing, transferring, positioning, eating and drinking using technical aids, after 1 week, 1 month and 3 months, post hospital discharge; (iii) using telephone support, counselling caregivers on 3rd, 6th, 8th and 10th weeks post discharge. It aims at facilitating the caregivers 'adjustment to stroke demands, increasing knowledge and practical skills to support their decision-making.
Other: training capacity in caregivers
The participants of the InCARE programme (intervention group) will receive, additionally, intervention based on: (i) empowering caregivers to put "hands on" caring, which will be the key-point of the pilot programme; (ii) training handling techniques: mobility, bathing, (un)dressing, transferring, positioning, eating and drinking using technical aids, after 1 week, 1 month and 3 months, post hospital discharge.

What is the study measuring?

Primary Outcome Measures

Outcome Measure
Measure Description
Time Frame
Empowerment to self-care in informal caregivers
Time Frame: 65 years

The primary outcomes will be informal caregivers´ empowerment to self-care. measured by ECPICID-AVC tool. This outcome will be measure 1 week and 1 month post discharge at home.

The primary analysis will be performed according to the intention-to-treat principle.
65 years

Secondary Outcome Measures

Outcome Measure
Measure Description
Time Frame
Burden
Time Frame: 65

Secondary outcomes will include Burden measure by QUASCI tool in informal caregivers. This outcome will be measured 1 and 3 months after InCARE programme. All participants will be recruited through the community staff.

This study will include a sample size of 79 informal caregivers and stroke survivors for each group.

The descriptive statistics will describe the participants' characteristics through SPSS software.
65
Health quality of life
Time Frame: 65

Secondary outcomes will include Health quality of life measure by SF-36 tool in informal caregivers. This outcome will be measured 1 and 3 months after InCARE programme. All participants will be recruited through the community staff.

This study will include a sample size of 79 informal caregivers and stroke survivors for each group.

The descriptive statistics will describe the participants' characteristics through SPSS software.
65

Collaborators and Investigators

This is where you will find people and organizations involved with this study.

Sponsor

University of Minho

Investigators

  • Principal Investigator: Odete Araújo, PhDs;MSc;RN, University of Minho

Publications and helpful links

The person responsible for entering information about the study voluntarily provides these publications. These may be about anything related to the study.

General Publications

Study record dates

These dates track the progress of study record and summary results submissions to ClinicalTrials.gov. Study records and reported results are reviewed by the National Library of Medicine (NLM) to make sure they meet specific quality control standards before being posted on the public website.

Study Major Dates

Study Start

January 1, 2014

Primary Completion (Actual)

February 1, 2014

Study Completion (Anticipated)

October 1, 2014

Study Registration Dates

First Submitted

February 21, 2014

First Submitted That Met QC Criteria

February 26, 2014

First Posted (Estimate)

February 28, 2014

Study Record Updates

Last Update Posted (Estimate)

February 28, 2014

Last Update Submitted That Met QC Criteria

February 26, 2014

Last Verified

February 1, 2014

More Information

Terms related to this study

Keywords

Additional Relevant MeSH Terms

Other Study ID Numbers

  • 44/2013

This information was retrieved directly from the website clinicaltrials.gov without any changes. If you have any requests to change, remove or update your study details, please contact register@clinicaltrials.gov. As soon as a change is implemented on clinicaltrials.gov, this will be updated automatically on our website as well.

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