Abstract
Given the increasing number of family caregivers of persons with dementia (PWD) and the associated burden and detriments to both physical and mental health, interventions that aim to improve such outcomes are important. Studies are increasingly demonstrating the unique importance of positive emotions in coping with stress, independent from the impact of negative emotions. However, none have examined the benefits of interventions that target positive emotions for caregivers of individuals with a chronic and debilitating disease such as dementia. This paper presents the design and methods for a randomized controlled trial (RCT) of a positive affect skills intervention for family caregivers of PWD. The RCT is of a skillsbased intervention that seeks to increase the frequency and intensity of positive affect in order to improve outcomes such as well-being, coping, and physical and mental health. The skills are delivered by trained facilitators via five one-to-one Internet video sessions with family caregivers of persons diagnosed with dementia (eg, Alzheimer’s disease, vascular dementia, unspecified). The control group is an emotion reporting/waitlist control. Follow-up assessments are conducted post-intervention and at 1, 3, and 6 months post-completion of the intervention. This study promises to be an important and needed step toward improving the lives of caregivers of PWD.
| Original language | English (US) |
|---|---|
| Pages (from-to) | 1-12 |
| Number of pages | 12 |
| Journal | Open Access Journal of Clinical Trials |
| Volume | 10 |
| DOIs | |
| State | Published - Feb 7 2018 |
Funding
Emotional Distress – Depression, Patient Reported Outcomes Measurement Information System Item Bank, v.1.0 (PROMIS90) is used to assess depressive mood. Participants rate 28 items focused on depressive symptoms over the past 7 days. Each item is rated on a scale from Never to Always. Supported by the National Institutes for Health, PROMIS The authors sincerely thank Erin Hubbard, Eva Shiu, and Stephanie Schuette for their outstanding contributions as LEAF program facilitators and Paul Cotten for program facilitation and custom database creation. Also, the authors specially thank Judy Mastick for critically reviewing the proposal and Michael Cohn, who developed an online application to facilitate daily data collection. Research reported in this publication was supported by the National Institute of Nursing Research of the National Institutes of Health under Award Number R01NR014435. The content is solely the responsibility of the authors and does not necessarily represent the official views of the National Institutes of Health.
Keywords
- Coping
- Dementia caregiving
- Intervention
- Positive affect
- RCT
- Stress
ASJC Scopus subject areas
- Pharmacology, Toxicology and Pharmaceutics (miscellaneous)
- Pharmacology (medical)