NCT02074501

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

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

• Status: Unknown
• Phase: N/A
• Study type: Interventional
• Enrollment: 158 (actual)
• Sponsor: University of Minho · Academic / Other
• Sex: All
• Age: 65 Years
• Healthy volunteers: Not accepted

Summary

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.

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.

Conditions

• Cerebrovascular Disorder

Interventions

Type	Name	Description
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.

Timeline

• Start date: 2014-01-01
• Primary completion: 2014-02-01
• Completion: 2014-10-01
• First posted: 2014-02-28
• Last updated: 2014-02-28

Locations

1 site across 1 country: Portugal