Connecting Through Caregiving: Reappraising Intergeneration Relationships

NCT ID: NCT03030027

Last Updated: 2019-04-16

Basic Information

• Recruitment Status: UNKNOWN
• Clinical Phase: NA
• Total Enrollment: 80 participants
• Study Classification: INTERVENTIONAL
• Study Start Date: 2017-01-09
• Study Completion Date: 2020-12-31

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.

Conditions

Dementia

Study Design

• Allocation Method: RANDOMIZED
• Intervention Model: PARALLEL
• Primary Study Purpose: TREATMENT
• Blinding Strategy: TRIPLE

Study Groups

Connecting Through Caregiving

This arm focuses on perspective-taking reappraisal procedures.

Group Type: EXPERIMENTAL

Connecting Through Caregiving

Intervention Type: BEHAVIORAL

The Connecting Through Caregiving intervention focuses on reappraisal exercises on intergeneration relationships in caregiving, involving the following: 1) enhancing self-awareness of the caregiver, 2) developing interpersonal empathy for the care-recipient, 3) help-seeking in caregiving, 4) balancing self-care and caring and 5) negotiating action plans.

Basic Skills Building

This arm focuses on skill building.

Group Type: OTHER

Basic Skills Building

Intervention Type: OTHER

Skill building involves: 1) monitoring activities, 2) pleasant event scheduling, 3) communicating with the care recipient, 4) communicating with family members and 5) review implementation

Interventions

Connecting Through Caregiving

The Connecting Through Caregiving intervention focuses on reappraisal exercises on intergeneration relationships in caregiving, involving the following: 1) enhancing self-awareness of the caregiver, 2) developing interpersonal empathy for the care-recipient, 3) help-seeking in caregiving, 4) balancing self-care and caring and 5) negotiating action plans.

Intervention Type: BEHAVIORAL

Basic Skills Building

Skill building involves: 1) monitoring activities, 2) pleasant event scheduling, 3) communicating with the care recipient, 4) communicating with family members and 5) review implementation

Intervention Type: OTHER

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.

• Minimum Eligible Age: 18 Years
• Maximum Eligible Age: 65 Years
• Eligible Sex: FEMALE
• Accepts Healthy Volunteers: Yes

Sponsors

The Hong Kong Polytechnic University

OTHER

Sponsor Role: lead

Responsible Party

Responsibility Role: SPONSOR

Principal Investigators

Alma Au, {PhD

Role: PRINCIPAL_INVESTIGATOR

Hong Kong Polytechnic University

Locations

Institute of Active Ageing

Kowloon, , Hong Kong

Site Status: RECRUITING

Countries

Hong Kong

Central Contacts

Joey Chan, Master

Role: CONTACT

joey.cyc.chan@polyu.edu.hk

852-2766-5504

Facility Contacts

Alma Au, PhD

Role: primary

alma.au@polyu.edu.hk

852-2766-7746 ext. 7746

Other Identifiers

AFC2016

Identifier Type: -

Identifier Source: org_study_id