Qualitative evaluation of a problem-solving intervention for informal hospice caregivers

When Is the Best Time to Deliver Supportive Interventions to Hospice Family Caregivers? A Multi-Method Study

BACKGROUND AND OBJECTIVES

While problem-solving interventions can teach caregivers effective coping skills throughout hospice, the optimal timing for introducing such resources remains unclear. We explored how the timing of a problem-solving intervention affects its effectiveness for hospice caregivers.

RESEARCH DESIGN AND METHODS

We conducted a multi-method study analyzing quantitative and qualitative data from a randomized clinical trial of a Problem-solving Intervention to Support Caregivers in End-of-life care Settings (PISCES). Caregivers were randomly assigned to 3 intervention groups: PISCES delivered face-to-face (F2F), PISCES delivered in a hybrid format, and PISCES integrating positive appraisal elements (PISCESplus). We compared the anxiety and depressive symptoms before and after the intervention among 318 caregivers across various stages of hospice. We conducted a content analysis of 45 exit interviews to explore how caregivers perceived PISCES and their hospice experience in relation to its timing.

RESULTS

Caregivers' anxiety showed significant pre-post differences regardless of the intervention timing, modality, and components. The impact on depressive symptoms differed: While the PISCES F2F group showed significant changes at all timings, only bereaved caregivers had significant changes in the PISCES Hybrid group (p < .001). In the PISCESplus group, caregivers in the midst of hospice and bereaved showed significant changes (p = .043 and <.001, respectively). Three themes emerged from the qualitative analysis: timing for PISCES to be most effective, emotions during various stages of hospice, and the length of PISCES.

DISCUSSION AND IMPLICATIONS

Strategically integrating PISCES into hospice practice can help alleviate caregivers' distress. More work is needed to improve the real-world applicability of caregiver-focused interventions in hospice.

Interventions for Family Caregivers of Patients Receiving Palliative/Hospice Care at Home: A Scoping Review

There is a need for understanding the breadth of interventions for caregivers of individuals receiving hospice care at home, given the important role caregivers play in caring and the negative outcomes (e.g., depression) associated with their caregiving. Previous reviews were limited in scope to certain types of interventions or patient populations. The objective of this scoping review was to broadly examine the interventions targeting caregivers who provide care to terminally ill patients in home, with the purpose of (1) describing the characteristics of these interventions, (2) discussing key outcomes, limitations, and knowledge gaps, (3) highlighting intervention strengths, and (4) proposing future research directions. We followed the Preferred Reporting Items for Systematic Reviews and Meta-Analyses extension for Scoping Reviews (PRISMA-ScR). Intervention studies that met the inclusion criteria and that were published up until October 2022 were obtained from the following databases: Ovid MEDLINE, Ovid EMBASE, CINAHL (EBSCO), and The Cochrane Library (Wiley). We analyzed 76 studies describing 55 unique interventions that took place in 14 countries. Interventions were largely delivered by nurses (n = 18, 24%), followed by an interdisciplinary team (n = 16, 21%), a health care provider (n = 10, 13%), research staff (n = 10, 13%), social worker (n = 5, 7%), and others (n = 11, 15%). Six interventions (8%) were self-administered. The most measured outcome was caregiver quality of life (n = 20, 26%), followed by anxiety (n = 18, 24%) and burden (n = 15, 20%). Missing data on patient and caregiver characteristics (i.e., age, gender) were common, and less than half of studies (n = 32, 42%) reported race/ethnicity data. Our review highlighted the current state of interventions for caregivers of patients receiving hospice care at home. Many of the interventions were in the early phases of development, raising the need for future studies to look at efficacy, effectiveness, and the ability to implement interventions in real-world settings.

Spoken words as biomarkers: using machine learning to gain insight into communication as a predictor of anxiety

OBJECTIVE

The goal of this study was to explore whether features of recorded and transcribed audio communication data extracted by machine learning algorithms can be used to train a classifier for anxiety.

MATERIALS AND METHODS

We used a secondary data set generated by a clinical trial examining problem-solving therapy for hospice caregivers consisting of 140 transcripts of multiple, sequential conversations between an interviewer and a family caregiver along with standardized assessments of anxiety prior to each session; 98 of these transcripts (70%) served as the training set, holding the remaining 30% of the data for evaluation.

RESULTS

A classifier for anxiety was developed relying on language-based features. An 86% precision, 78% recall, 81% accuracy, and 84% specificity were achieved with the use of the trained classifiers. High anxiety inflections were found among recently bereaved caregivers and were usually connected to issues related to transitioning out of the caregiving role. This analysis highlighted the impact of lowering anxiety by increasing reciprocity between interviewers and caregivers.

CONCLUSION

Verbal communication can provide a platform for machine learning tools to highlight and predict behavioral health indicators and trends.

The Life Experiences Among Primary Family Caregivers of Home-Based Palliative Care

BACKGROUND

An increasing number of patients with terminal illnesses prefer to die in their own homes due to aging, high medical payments, a limited number of hospitalization days, and the ability to receive care from family members. However, few studies have been conducted on the subjective perception and value of caregivers for home-based palliative care (HBPC).

OBJECTIVE

To identify common themes and topics of primary family caregivers' lived experiences with HBPC when taking care of terminally ill family members.

METHODS

We conducted audio-recorded transcripts of one-on-one in-depth interviews of primary family caregivers of HBPC. Through a purposive sampling method, the participants were all interviewed; these interviews were transcribed verbatim and analyzed using a grounded theory approach.

RESULTS

A total of 22 primary family caregivers participated in the study. "Wholeheartedly accompanying one's family to the end of life at home" was the core category. Six main themes describing caregivers' experiences emerged from the interviews: (1) learning the basic skills of end-of-life home care, (2) arranging the sharing and rotation of care, (3) preparing for upcoming deaths and funerals, (4) negotiating the cultural and ethical issues of end-of-life home care, (5) ensuring a comfortable life with basic life support, and (6) maintaining care characterized by concern, perseverance, and patience.

CONCLUSIONS

Primary family caregivers of HBPC need support and must learn home care skills by means of the holistic approach. It is crucial to establish assessment tools for caregivers' preparedness for HBPC, including biopsychosocial and cultural considerations.

Individual differences and health in chronic pain: are sex-differences relevant?

BACKGROUND

Because psychological variables are known to intercorrelate, the goal of this investigation was to compare the unique association between several well-established psychological constructs in pain research and pain-related outcomes. Sex differences are considered because pain is experienced differently across sex groups.

METHODS

Participants were 456 consecutive chronic pain patients attending a tertiary pain clinic (mean age = 58.4 years, SD = 14.8, 63.6% women). The study design was cross-sectional. Psychological constructs included personality (NEO-Five Factor Inventory), irrational thinking (General Attitudes and Beliefs Scale), and coping (Social Problem Solving Inventory). Outcomes were pain severity and interference (Brief Pain Inventory) and physical, general, and mental health status (Short Form-36). To decide whether the bivariate analyses and the two-block, multivariate linear regressions for each study outcome (block 1 = age, sex, and pain severity; block 2 = psychological variables) should be conducted with the whole sample or split by sex, we first explored whether sex moderated the relationship between psychological variables and outcomes. An alpha level of 0.001 was set to reduce the risk of type I errors due to multiple comparisons.

RESULTS

The moderation analyses indicated no sex differences in the association between psychological variables and study outcomes (all interaction terms p > .05). Thus, further analyses were calculated with the whole sample. Specifically, the bivariate analyses revealed that psychological constructs were intercorrelated in the expected direction and mostly correlated with mental health and overall perceived health status. In the regressions, when controlling for age, sex, and pain severity, psychological factors as a block significantly increased the explained variance of physical functioning (ΔR2 = .037, p < .001), general health (ΔR2 = .138, p < .001), and mental health (ΔR2 = .362, p < .001). However, unique associations were only obtained for mental health and neuroticism (β = - 0.30, p < .001) and a negative problem orientation (β = - 0.26, p < .001).

CONCLUSIONS

There is redundancy in the relationship between psychological variables and pain-related outcomes and the strength of this association is highest for mental health status. The association between psychological characteristics and health outcomes was comparable for men and women, which suggests that the same therapeutic targets could be selected in psychological interventions of pain patients irrespective of sex.

A Problem-Solving Intervention for Hospice Family Caregivers: A Randomized Clinical Trial

OBJECTIVES

Family caregivers of hospice patients have multiple needs as they try to cope during a stressful time. Translatable interventions effective in improving caregiver outcomes are greatly needed. Our objective was to assess the impact of a problem-solving intervention (called Problem-Solving Intervention to Support Caregivers in End-of-Life Care Settings [PISCES]) to support hospice caregivers on caregiver quality of life and anxiety, and compare its effectiveness delivered face to face and via videoconferencing.

DESIGN

In this 4-year randomized clinical trial, caregivers were randomly assigned to a group receiving standard care with added "friendly calls" (attention control [AC] group), a group receiving standard care and PISCES delivered face to face (F2F), or a group receiving standard care and PISCES delivered via videoconferencing (VC).

SETTING

Home hospice.

PARTICIPANTS

A total of 514 caregivers participated (172 in AC, 171 in F2F, and 171 in VC). Caregivers were predominantly female (75%); mean age was 60.3 years.

INTERVENTION

PISCES includes a structured curriculum delivered in three sessions and motivates caregivers to adopt a positive attitude, define problems by obtaining facts, set goals, and generate and evaluate solutions.

MEASUREMENTS

Quality of life was measured by the Caregiver Quality of Life Index-Revised; anxiety was measured by the Generalized Anxiety Disorder 7-Item. Other measures included the Caregiver Reaction Assessment scale, demographic data, and an exit interview.

RESULTS

Compared with AC, caregivers in the F2F condition had postintervention reduced anxiety (-1.31 [95% confidence interval [CI] = -2.11 to .50]; p = .004) and improved social (.57 [95% CI = .19-.95]; p = .01), financial (.57 [95% CI = .21-.93]; p = .004), and physical quality of life (.53 [95% CI = .19-.87]; p = .01). There were no differences in caregivers in the VC condition compared with the AC condition.

CONCLUSION

The PISCES intervention improves caregiver outcomes and is effective when delivered in person. How to integrate technology to reduce the intervention delivery cost warrants further investigation.

An intervention that reduces stress in people who combine work with informal care: randomized controlled trial results

Background

The aim of the research was to examine whether a role-focused self-help course intervention would decrease caregiver stress and distress, and functioning problems, among people who suffer stress because they combine paid work with informal care.

Methods

A pre-registered (NTR 5528) randomized controlled design was applied (intervention vs. wait list control). Participants (n = 128) were people who had paid work and were suffering stress due to their involvement in informal care activities. Participants allocated to the intervention group (n = 65) received the role-focused self-help course. Control group members (n = 63) received this intervention after all measurements. Prior to the random allocation (pre-test), and 1 month (post-test 1) and 2 months (post-test 2) after allocation, all participants completed a questionnaire that measured their caregiver stress (primary outcome), distress, work functioning, negative care-to-work interference and negative care-to-social and personal life interference. Mixed model ANOVAs were used to test the effectiveness of the intervention.

Results

Two months after allocation, the intervention group participants had lower levels of caregiver stress and distress compared with the control group participants. The intervention did not directly resolve impaired work functioning or interference of care with work and social/personal life.

Conclusion

The intervention decreases caregiver stress and distress in people who suffer stress because they combine paid work with informal caring. The intervention (Dutch version) can be downloaded at no cost from www.amc.nl/mantelzorgstress.

Pain in Hospice Patients With Dementia: The Informal Caregiver Experience

INTRODUCTION

At the end of life, patients with dementia often experience high levels of pain due to complex interplay of disease processes and numerous barriers to symptom management. In the hospice setting, informal caregivers play an essential role in pain management. This study describes their experience managing pain in hospice patients with dementia.

METHODS

We conducted a qualitative analysis of audio-recorded interviews with informal caregivers of hospice patients with dementia who had chosen pain as the challenge they wanted to work on within a problem-solving therapy intervention.

RESULTS

The thematic analysis of sessions with 51 caregivers identified 4 themes: difficulty in communicating with patients, lack of consistent guidance from health-care professionals, perceived uncertainty about the etiology of pain, and secondary suffering.

DISCUSSION

Our findings indicate the possible need for increased support for caregivers, including educational interventions targeting pain etiology and assessment, and improved communication with health-care professionals.

Evaluation of a video, telephone follow-ups, and an online forum as components of a psychoeducational intervention for caregivers of persons with advanced cancer

OBJECTIVE

Our aim was to evaluate caregivers' perceptions of a video, telephone follow-up, and online forum as components of a psychoeducational intervention.

METHOD

Qualitative semistructured face-to-face interviews were conducted with 12 participants two weeks post-intervention. The study was conducted from September of 2012 to May of 2015. Family caregivers were recruited from four home hospice organizations (HCA Hospice Care, Metta Hospice, Singapore Cancer Centre, and Agape Methodist Hospice) and the National Cancer Centre outpatient clinic in Singapore. A purposive sample was employed, and participants were recruited until data saturation. Qualitative interviews were transcribed verbatim. Transcripts were coded and analyzed using content analysis. Two of the research team members were involved in the data analysis.

RESULTS

Two-thirds of participants were females (n = 8). Their ages ranged from 22 to 67 (mean = 50.50, SD = 11.53). About two-thirds were married (n = 7). Most participants were caring for a parent (n = 10), one for a spouse, and one for her mother-in-law. Caregivers favored the use of video for delivery of educational information. They liked the visual and audio aspects of the video. The ability to identify with the caregiver and scenarios in the video helped in the learning process. They appreciated telephone follow-ups from healthcare professionals for informational and emotional support. The online forum as a platform for sharing of information and provision of support was not received well by the caregivers in this study. The reasons for this included their being busy, not being computer savvy, rarely surfing the internet, and not feeling comfortable sharing with strangers on an online platform.

SIGNIFICANCE OF RESULTS

This study provided insight into caregivers' perceptions of various components of a psychoeducational intervention. It also gave us a better understanding of how future psychoeducational interventions and support for caregivers of persons with advanced cancer could be provided.

Adult Hospice Social Work Intervention Outcomes in the United States

A descriptive and critical analysis of the available empirical literature on social work psychosocial intervention outcomes for adult hospice patients and caregivers was conducted. The electronic bibliographic databases CINHAL (EBSCO), MEDLINE, ProQuest, EMBASE, Campbell Collaboration, and The Cochrane Central Register of Controlled Trials (CENTRAL, The Cochrane Library) were searched. Search criteria were (a) social work interventions, (b) intervention was tested, (c) adult hospice patients and/or caregivers, (d) studies within the United States, (e) and studies between 2004 and 2014. Of the 21 studies that met the initial search criteria, 5 publications met all review criteria. Based on assessment of study results, intervention effect, and quality of evidence, the ADAPT Problem-Solving Intervention (PSI) and the Hospice Caregiver Support Project have some indications of practical effect on caregiver quality of life, anxiety, stress, and problem-solving skills. The Caregiver Life Line (CaLL) intervention had little to no effect on caregiver role stress or coping skills. The few available studies provide foundational insight into the need for the expansion of research efforts to evaluate hospice social work interventions and document the contributions of social work to the field.