Efficacy of a psychoeducational intervention in caregivers of people with intellectual disabilities: A randomized controlled trial (EDUCA-IV trial)
Section snippets
What this paper adds?
Relatives are the ones who usually care for people with intellectual disability (ID), and, as informal caregivers, they may experience negative psychological consequences (i.e. caregiver burden, mental health issues, depression or anxiety). Despite this issue being well-known and described, there is a lack of well-designed studies assessing psychological interventions that could help caregivers cope with demanding/stressful situations. In this randomised controlled study we tested the efficacy
Hypothesis and design
The principal hypothesis of the EDUCA-IV trial is that informal caregivers allocated to the PIP condition would show less burden at post-intervention endpoint (4 months), and at follow-up (8 months) than caregivers allocated to control condition (wait list). The secondary hypothesis was that caregivers allocated to PIP condition would also show a significant improvement in mental health conditions (well-being, depression, and anxiety) after intervention and at follow-up compared to caregivers
Recruitment, losses to follow-up and fidelity
A total of 323 dyads were assessed for eligibility. 73 did not meet selection criteria, and 56 refused to participate. The remaining 194 caregivers were recruited to participate and randomised (96 to PIP and 98 to control condition), from October 2015 to January 2016. The last visit took place throughout the period June – September 2016. Fig. 1 shows the trial flowchart. Data from 7 research sites were included in the analysis. The median recruitment by research site was 27.7 caregivers (range
Discussion
Parents providing ongoing care to people with intellectual disabilities are found to be at risk of adverse mental health outcomes such as burden, distress, depression or anxiety. The current study endorses this problem (baseline scores) and has tested the efficacy of a psychoeducational intervention in a sample of informal caregivers of people with intellectual disabilities. According to our results, we cannot confirm the primary hypothesis related to the efficacy of our intervention.
Measures
Conclusions
Our study shows that informal caregivers of people with intellectual disabilities may present negative consequences that affect their mental health (burden, distress, risk of depression and anxiety) and should receive assistance, especially those with a higher burden. We developed a psychoeducational intervention (12 group weekly sessions) to improve their psychological wellbeing. Using an experimental methodology, we found positive results on general mental health but not on caregiver burden,
Declaration of Competing Interest
None.
Acknowledgements
The EDUCA-IV trial was funded by Sisters Hospitallers. The role of the funding source was limited to economic support. It was not involved in the study process, preparation or submission of the manuscript.
The EDUCA-IV researchers involved are Salud Jiménez Ballesteros, Yolanda Martínez Campos, Mª Ángeles Burgos Pulido, Elena Navarro Mateos, María del Carmen Mesa Martínez, Ana Isabel Pérez González, María de los Ángeles Iañez Velazco, Iván Martínez Rodríguez, Cristina García Hernández, Jesica
References (66)
- et al.
Unidimensional 12-item Zarit Caregiver Burden Interview for the assessment of dementia caregivers’ burden obtained by item response theory
Value in Health
(2012) - et al.
Short-form Zarit Caregiver Burden Interviews were valid in advanced conditions
Journal of Clinical Epidemiology
(2010) - et al.
Family burden related to clinical and functional variables of people with intellectual disability with and without a mental disorder
Research in Developmental Disabilities
(2012) - et al.
A randomized trial to assess the efficacy of a psychoeducational intervention on caregiver burden in schizophrenia
European Psychiatry
(2016) - et al.
Prevalence of intellectual disability: A meta-analysis of population-based studies
Research in Developmental Disabilities
(2011) - et al.
Stepping Stones Triple P seminars for parents of a child with a disability: A randomized controlled trial
Research in Developmental Disabilities
(2011) - et al.
Parenting stress and child behavior problems within families of children with developmental disabilities: Transactional relations across 15 years
Research in Develepmental Disabilities
(2015) - et al.
Burden assessment, psychiatric morbidity, and their correlates in caregivers of patients with intellectual disability
East Asian Archives of Psychiatry
(2015) - et al.
Reducing burnout in mothers with an intellectually disabled child: An education programme
Journal of Advanced Nursing
(2009) - et al.
ICAP. Inventory for client and agency planning. Examiner’s manual
(1986)