Resourcefulness Intervention With Parents of Technology-Dependent Children

NCT ID: NCT03301831

Last Updated: 2021-10-25

Basic Information

• Recruitment Status: COMPLETED
• Clinical Phase: NA
• Total Enrollment: 93 participants
• Study Classification: INTERVENTIONAL
• Study Start Date: 2018-02-05
• Study Completion Date: 2019-12-09

Brief Summary

Technology-dependent children, those who live at home but rely on medical equipment such as mechanical ventilation or feeding tubes, require complex care for their chronic condition. Parents usually provide a majority of their care and are often overwhelmed by the caregiving demands resulting in deterioration of their own mental and physical health. The goal of this 2-arm (intervention vs. attention control) RCT is to test a cognitive-behavioral Resourcefulness Training intervention that includes teaching social (help-seeking) and personal (self-help) resourcefulness skills; ongoing access to video vignettes of caregivers of technology-dependent children describing resourcefulness skill application in daily life; 4 weeks of skills' reinforcement using daily journal writing; weekly phone calls for the first 4 weeks; and booster sessions at 2 and 4 months post enrollment. The intervention is proposed to improve these caregivers' mental and physical health outcomes and family functioning outcomes while they continue to provide vital care for these vulnerable children.

Detailed Description

Technology-dependent children, those who rely on medical equipment such as mechanical ventilation or feeding tubes for daily care at home, are among the sickest and most vulnerable subset of children with complex chronic conditions. An estimated 600,000 children in the United States are technology dependent and live at home, and are cared for primarily by their parents. These parents report greater levels of depressive symptoms and stress than other caregiver groups. In addition, these caregivers report poor psychological and physical health that compromise their caregiving capacity and increase their use of emergency rooms (ER) for their children's care needs. Despite these adverse consequences, there are no interventions to meet the needs of these caregivers and their children. Resourcefulness Training, (cognitive-behavioral self-management intervention) has been shown to improve psychological and physical outcomes, mediate the effects of stress, and enhance the care provided to care-recipients. It will be tested in a randomized trial against an attention-only control arm. The intervention arm will receive an intervention that includes: a face-to-face session for teaching social (help-seeking) and personal (self-help) resourcefulness skills; ongoing access to video vignettes of caregivers of technology-dependent children describing resourcefulness skill application in daily life; 4 weeks of skills' reinforcement using daily journal writing; weekly phone calls for the first 4 weeks; and booster sessions at 2 and 4 months post enrollment. The Attention Control arm will receive weekly phone calls for the first 4 weeks and at 2 and 4 months post enrollment plus any usual care. The aims of the study are to: 1) Determine whether Resourcefulness Training versus Attention Control improves psychological (general mental health, depressive cognitions, depressive symptoms, appraised stress, burden) and physical outcomes (general physical health, chronic stress [hair cortisol]) and family functioning over 6 months in parents of technology-dependent children, after controlling for the parents' race/ethnicity, sex, family income, and children's functional status; and 2) Determine whether changes in psychological and physical outcomes and family functioning are mediated by changes in parents' levels of resourcefulness (personal and social). Data collection will take place at baseline then 6 weeks, 3 months, and 6 months post-enrollment. Our study will be the first to test a resourcefulness intervention for this caregiver population and to include male as well as female caregivers. This intervention is distinctive in that it uses web, telephone, and journal components for reinforcement-not multiple face-to-face visits that can be labor intensive. If shown to be efficacious, it can be easily replicated with other populations with strong potential for translation into practice.

Conditions

Depressive Symptoms; Multiple Chronic Conditions; Family Caregivers

Study Design

• Allocation Method: RANDOMIZED
• Intervention Model: PARALLEL
• Primary Study Purpose: SUPPORTIVE_CARE
• Blinding Strategy: NONE

Study Groups

Resourcefulness Training Intervention

The intervention arm will receive an intervention that includes: a face-to-face session for teaching social (help-seeking) and personal (self-help) resourcefulness skills; ongoing access to video vignettes of caregivers of technology-dependent children describing resourcefulness skill application in daily life; 4 weeks of skills' reinforcement using daily journal writing; weekly phone calls for the first 4 weeks; and booster sessions at 2 and 4 months post enrollment.

Group Type: EXPERIMENTAL

Resourcefulness Training

Intervention Type: BEHAVIORAL

Cognitive-behavioral intervention that includes personal and social resourcefulness skills.

Attention Control

The Attention Control arm will receive weekly phone calls for the first 4 weeks and at 2 and 4 months post enrollment plus any usual care.

Group Type: NO_INTERVENTION

No interventions assigned to this group

Interventions

Resourcefulness Training

Cognitive-behavioral intervention that includes personal and social resourcefulness skills.

Intervention Type: BEHAVIORAL

Eligibility Criteria

Inclusion Criteria

• parent caregiver (biological, adoptive, or foster mother, father, grandmother or grandfather) for a technology-dependent child based on the Office of Technology Assessment (OTA) classification criteria (Group 1, mechanical ventilator; Group 2, intravenous nutrition/medication; Group 3 respiratory or nutritional support)
• at least 18 years of age
• able to speak and understand English due to the availability of the intervention and instruments in English only
• the technology-dependent child must be age 17 years or younger and receive care in the home from his/her parent

Exclusion Criteria

• Parents of children with a cancer diagnosis will be excluded from participation due to the potentially life-threatening, terminal nature of the illness and grief reactions associated with a cancer diagnosis that may limit their ability to participate over the 6 month study.

• Minimum Eligible Age: 18 Years
• Eligible Sex: ALL
• Accepts Healthy Volunteers: Yes

Sponsors

National Institute of Nursing Research (NINR)

NIH

Sponsor Role: collaborator

University Hospitals Cleveland Medical Center

OTHER

Sponsor Role: lead

Responsible Party

Valerie Toly

Assistant Professor- UH Research Associate

Responsibility Role: PRINCIPAL_INVESTIGATOR

Principal Investigators

Valerie A Toly, PhD

Role: PRINCIPAL_INVESTIGATOR

Frances Payne Bolton School of Nursing, Case Western Reserve University

Locations

University Hospitals Cleveland Medical Center

Cleveland, Ohio, United States

Countries

United States

Provided Documents

Document Type: Study Protocol and Statistical Analysis Plan

View Document

Other Identifiers

1R15NR017302-01

Identifier Type: NIH

Identifier Source: secondary_id

View Link

08-10-30

Identifier Type: -

Identifier Source: org_study_id