Befriending carers of people with dementia: randomised controlled trial

Contact Information

Keywords

Georgina Charlesworth g.charlesworth@ucl.ac.uk

N/A

Abstract

Objective: To evaluate the effectiveness of a voluntary sector based befriending scheme in improving psychological wellbeing and quality of life for family carers of people with dementia. Design: Single blind randomised controlled trial. Setting: Community settings in East Anglia and London. Participants: 236 family carers of people with primary progressive dementia. Intervention: Contact with a befriender facilitator and offer of match with a trained lay volunteer befriender compared with no befriender facilitator contact; all participants continued to receive "usual care." Main outcome measures: Carers' mood (hospital anxiety and depression scale-depression) and health related quality of life (EuroQoL) at 15 months post-randomisation. Results: The intention to treat analysis showed no benefit for the intervention "access to a befriender facilitator" on the primary outcome measure or on any of the secondary outcome measures. Conclusions: In common with many carers' services, befriending schemes are not taken up by all carers, and providing access to a befriending scheme is not effective in improving wellbeing. Trial registration Current CONTROLLED TRIALS: ISRCTN08130075.

Citation

Charlesworth, G., Shepstone, L., Wilson, E., Reynolds, S., Mugford, M., Price, D., Harvey, I., & Poland, F. (2008). Befriending carers of people with dementia: randomised controlled trial. BMJ (Clinical research ed.), 336(7656), 1295–1297. https://doi.org/10.1136/bmj.39549.548831.AE

DOI

10.1136/bmj.39549.548831.AE

EWB Constructs:

(2) Life Satisfaction
(3) Positive Affect

EWB Measures:

(1) Euro-Qol 5 Dimensions (EQ5D).
(2) Positive and Negative Affect Schedule (PANAS)
(3) quality-adjusted life-years(QALYs)

data availability:

data availability details:

N/A

brain imaging paradigm:

N/A

brain region/circuit:

Exclusion Criteria:

Carers with significant congenital or acquired cognitive impairment were excluded, as were those with terminal illness. Carers of people in permanent residential, nursing or long-stay hospital accommodation were also excluded.

Inclusion Criteria

The main inclusion criteria were that participants must be family carers aged 18 years or older, caring for a person with a primary progressive dementia. Carers should either be cohabiting with the PwD, or spending an average of 20 hours or more per week on care-related tasks such as supervision and assistance in activities of daily living (ADL).

Non-EWB Behavioral
Measures:

(1) Hospital Anxiety and Depression Scale (HADS)
(2) A two-item measure of emotional loneliness
(3) Carers Assessment of Difficulties Index (CADI)
(4) Mutual Communal
(5)Behaviours Scale (MCBS)
(6)Practitioner Assessment of Network Type (PANT) scale
(7)Brief Coping Orientation for Problem Experience (COPE
(8)List of Threatening Experiences
(9)Multidimensional Scale of Perceived Social Support (MSPSS)
(10)Client Service Receipt Inventory (CSRI)
(11)the Caregiver Time Questionnaire,
(12) Caregiver Activity Schedule (CAS)
(13)Resource Utilization in Dementia (RUD)

First author:

Georgina Charlesworth

species:

Human

sample size:

236

study design:

(5) RCT

longitudinal data?

Yes

younger controls?

interventions:

Befriending carers intervention

study population:

(1) cognitively healthy adults

sex (% female):

64%

ethnicity (%white)

99%

Age (mean, sd):

68.0, 11.4

biological/Physiological Measures:

N/A