A Two-Tier Care Management Program to Empower Stroke Caregivers in Hong Kong

Stroke Clinical Trial

Official title: A Two-Tier Care Management Program to Empower Stroke Caregivers in Hong Kong: A Randomized Controlled Trial

Status Completed

Clinical Trial Summary

This study intends to develop a family-based care management intervention with primary aims to provide time-limited support for family caregivers affected by stroke and to empower caregivers through enhancing the family adaptation and functioning and increasing their capacity of stroke care. The objectives include:

1. To examine the effectiveness of the proposed family-based intervention to improve family, caregiver, and service outcome.

2. To examine the cost-effectiveness of the proposed family intervention.

It is hypothesized that comparing to the control group, the experimental group participants will have more and significant outcome.

Clinical Trial Description

This study will recruit 300 caregivers of first stroke survivors to involve in the intervention and employ a randomized controlled trial (RCT) to assign the caregivers into the intervention group and active control group. Each group will have 150 caregivers. The intervention is individualized, tailor-made according to caregivers' needs. Care managers will conduct an initial family need assessment with caregivers to determine their care plan. The intervention will last for 2 to 3 months with 6 to 10 weekly sessions. If the caregiver participants' family member with stroke (stroke survivors) agrees to and is competent enough( see Eligibility Criteria Criteria), they will also be invited to take part in up to 4 intervention sessions.

The active control group will receive a standard, non-family-based psychoeducation intervention provided by the trained volunteers under the supervision of care managers. The active control group will not involve stroke survivors. Therefore, a maximum of 150 stroke survivors will be involved in the intervention.

Both caregivers participants (300) and their family members with stroke (300) will be asked to do questionnaires before (T1), immediately after (T2) and 2 months after (T3) the intervention. The intervention and the questionnaire interview will take place at the homes of participants.

The participation of the stroke survivors in the intervention and the questionnaire interview will not affect the involvement of their caregivers in this study. In other words, caregivers can still take part in the intervention and the questionnaire interview if their family members with stroke refuse to or are not competent ( see Eligibility Criteria Criteria) to take part in this study.

No drug usage and medical treatment will be involved in the study. Intervention and questionnaires do not impose any physical or medical risk to participants. The only possible problem may be caregivers may feel a little tired after the intervention. Participants can voluntarily drop out the study at any time, without giving any reason, without my medical care or original rights being affected.

Both the effectiveness and the cost-effectiveness will be evaluated in this study (See Outcome Measures). Chi-square or independent t-tests will be used to examine the differences in the baseline characteristics between the intervention and control groups. To assess the effectiveness of the intervention, regression analysis will be used to compare the difference in outcomes between the intervention and control groups, controlling for the effect of potential covariates. Recruitment rate, drop-out rate and missing data will also be examined and reported.

The principal investigator will be responsible for keeping of the personal data during and after the study. The data will be for academic and clinical research only and will be kept for up to 5 years and will be destroyed after that. ;

Related Conditions & MeSH terms

• Stroke

• NCT number: NCT03034330
• Study type: Interventional
• Source: The University of Hong Kong
• Status: Completed
• Phase: N/A
• Start date: January 2017
• Completion date: March 2020