CClinicalTrials.gg
CompletedNCT03309046Updated Oct 23, 2023Results posted

Interventions for Parent Caregivers of Injured Military/Veteran Personnel

An interventional study of REACH Individual Session and Education Webinar in Stress Disorders, Post-Traumatic and Brain Injuries, Traumatic, sponsored by Memphis VA Medical Center. Completed at 1 site in United States. Per ClinicalTrials.gov, last updated 2023-10-23.

Sponsored by Memphis VA Medical Center · Not applicable, Interventional, and Treatment

Phase
Not applicable
Study type
Interventional
Enrollment
163
Allocation
Randomized
Sex
All
01

Study summary

This randomized clinical trial will test a behavioral caregiving intervention that has been used successfully for dementia and spinal cord injury caregivers to provide services to stressed and burdened parent caregivers of post 9/11 service members/veterans. This intervention is six intensive individual sessions that will teach problem solving, cognitive restructuring and stress reduction targeted to an individual assessment of the care dyad's needs. It will be compared to another method of delivering content, education webinar sessions, which are analogous to the usual standard of care and will function as an attention control arm. The objective of the study is to determine which of these delivery mechanisms is more effective at helping parent caregivers of injured post 9/11 returning troops to improve their depression, anxiety, and burden, and to determine the feasibility of using individual sessions with this population of caregivers.

02

Conditions studied

  • Stress Disorders, Post-Traumatic
  • Brain Injuries, Traumatic

Keywords

  • Parents
  • Caregivers
  • Veterans
03

Who can participate

Ages eligible
Child (0–17), Adult (18–64), Older adult (65+)
Sexes eligible
All
Accepts healthy volunteers
No

Inclusion criteria

  1. Identify as a parent who serves as the primary/main caregiver for a post 9/11 service member or veteran with a diagnosis of traumatic brain injury or post traumatic stress disorder or physical injury and at least 1 activity of daily living limitation or 2 or more instrumental of daily living limitations;
  2. provide 3 hours or more of care per day for at least 6 months;
  3. endorse at least 2 caregiving stress behaviors (overwhelmed, often needing to cry, angry/frustrated, cut off from family/friends, moderate/high levels of stress, and declining health); and
  4. have a telephone.
  5. Internet access is desirable but not mandatory.

Exclusion criteria

Exclusion Criteria:

  1. current diagnosis of schizophrenia or other major mental illness; or
  2. auditory impairment that would make telephone use difficult
04

Study design

Phase
Not applicable
Primary purpose
Treatment
Allocation
Randomized
Intervention model
Parallel assignment
Masking
Double (Investigator, Outcomes assessor)
Enrollment
163 participants (actual)

Study arms

  • Experimental
    REACH Individual Session

    The individual sessions intervention focuses on education, skills building, and support. It will be delivered in six sessions by telephone over three months. A Caregiver Notebook will include comprehensive materials for all sessions and topics. Treatment fidelity will be monitored and ensured through assessment of intervention delivery, receipt, and enactment. The intervention is targeted and individualized to the concerns of the specific caregiver and care recipient through a risk assessment. The Risk Assessment (RA) assesses the main caregiving risk areas for the specific caregiving dyad. The RA is used to tailor the intervention for care recipient behaviors or safety issues and/or caregiver centered issues/concerns related to health, physical and emotional well being, and/or social support.

    Other: REACH Individual Session

  • Active comparator
    Education Webinar

    For the education webinar sessions, topics addressing each of the caregiving risk factors topics but without the skills building or cognitive restructuring components present in the individual intervention sessions will be available online in webinars. The education webinar sessions will focus on general information about post 9/11 concerns, problem behaviors, caregiver health, caregiver emotional well-being, and red flags. Education webinar session participants will not receive the Caregiver Notebook until they have completed their 6 month interviews. Parents will be able to view all 6 webinars at any time during the first 3 months. Each session will last approximately thirty minutes through PowerPoint slide presentation format with a pre-recorded script.

    Other: Education Webinar

Interventions

  • OtherREACH Individual Session

    Individual telephone session with parent

  • OtherEducation Webinar

    Videos with information on caregiving

05

What researchers measure

Primary outcomes

  1. Depression - Patient Health Questionnaire - 9 (PHQ-9)

    The PHQ-9 has 9 items based on the DSM-IV depression diagnostic criteria. Time Frame: All questions refer to the past two weeks. Scaling: 0 (not at all) to 3 (nearly every day). On the PHQ-9, major depressive syndrome is suggested if #1 or #2 and 5 or more items are ranked positive (at least "more than half the days," count #9 if present at all). Other Depressive Syndrome suggested if #1 or #2 and two, three, or four of #1-9 are at least "More than half the days" (count #9 if present at all). Score ranges from 0-27. Higher scores indicate greater depression. Scores are summed to characterize depression as minimal (0-4), mild (5-9), moderate (10-14), moderately severe (15-19), or high/severe (20-27).

    Time frame: 6 months

  2. Anxiety - Generalized Anxiety Disorder (GAD-7). Time Frame: All Questions Refer to the Past Two Weeks.

    the GAD-7 contains a 7-item checklist of symptoms of GAD. All questions refer to the past two weeks. Scaling: 0 (not at all) to 3 (nearly every day) # of Items: 7-items. Scaling: 0 (not at all) to 3 (nearly every day). Scoring for each item ranges from 0 (not at all) to 3 (nearly every day) for an overall score of 0 to 21; higher scores equal more anxiety. Several cut points have been put forward for different purposes. A cut point of 10 identifies cases of generalized anxiety disorder. Cut points of 5, 10, and 15 represent mild, moderate and severe anxiety.

    Time frame: 6 months

  3. Burden - Zarit Burden Interview (ZBI-12)

    # of items: 12 items Scaling: 0 (Never) to 4 (Nearly Always) Total score ranges from 0-48, Higher scores indicate greater burden with \> 17 indicating severe/high burden.

    Time frame: 6 months

06

Results

Posted Oct 23, 2023

Participant flow

Participant flow — Overall Study
MilestoneREACH Individual SessionEducation Webinar
Started8281
Completed7864
Not completed417
Withdrew: Withdrawal by subject417

Outcome measures

PrimaryDepression - Patient Health Questionnaire - 9 (PHQ-9)

The PHQ-9 has 9 items based on the DSM-IV depression diagnostic criteria. Time Frame: All questions refer to the past two weeks. Scaling: 0 (not at all) to 3 (nearly every day). On the PHQ-9, major depressive syndrome is suggested if #1 or #2 and 5 or more items are ranked positive (at least "more than half the days," count #9 if present at all). Other Depressive Syndrome suggested if #1 or #2 and two, three, or four of #1-9 are at least "More than half the days" (count #9 if present at all). Score ranges from 0-27. Higher scores indicate greater depression. Scores are summed to characterize depression as minimal (0-4), mild (5-9), moderate (10-14), moderately severe (15-19), or high/severe (20-27).

Time frame:
6 months
Reported as:
Mean · units on a scale
Depression - Patient Health Questionnaire - 9 (PHQ-9)
units on a scaleREACH Individual SessionEducation Webinar
Depression - Patient Health Questionnaire - 9 (PHQ-9)4.4 ± 3.46.3 ± 4.9
PrimaryAnxiety - Generalized Anxiety Disorder (GAD-7). Time Frame: All Questions Refer to the Past Two Weeks.

the GAD-7 contains a 7-item checklist of symptoms of GAD. All questions refer to the past two weeks. Scaling: 0 (not at all) to 3 (nearly every day) # of Items: 7-items. Scaling: 0 (not at all) to 3 (nearly every day). Scoring for each item ranges from 0 (not at all) to 3 (nearly every day) for an overall score of 0 to 21; higher scores equal more anxiety. Several cut points have been put forward for different purposes. A cut point of 10 identifies cases of generalized anxiety disorder. Cut points of 5, 10, and 15 represent mild, moderate and severe anxiety.

Time frame:
6 months
Reported as:
Mean · units on a scale
Anxiety - Generalized Anxiety Disorder (GAD-7). Time Frame: All Questions Refer to the Past Two Weeks.
units on a scaleREACH Individual SessionEducation Webinar
Anxiety - Generalized Anxiety Disorder (GAD-7). Time Frame: All Questions Refer to the Past Two Weeks.5.3 ± 4.36.8 ± 5.1
PrimaryBurden - Zarit Burden Interview (ZBI-12)

# of items: 12 items Scaling: 0 (Never) to 4 (Nearly Always) Total score ranges from 0-48, Higher scores indicate greater burden with \> 17 indicating severe/high burden.

Time frame:
6 months
Reported as:
Mean · units on a scale
Burden - Zarit Burden Interview (ZBI-12)
units on a scaleREACH Individual SessionEducation Webinar
Burden - Zarit Burden Interview (ZBI-12)13.4 ± 8.516.1 ± 9.7

Adverse events

Collected over six months. Non-serious events are listed at a 0% frequency threshold.

Adverse event summary by group
GroupDeathsSeriousOther
REACH Individual Session0/82 (0%)0/82 (0%)0/82 (0%)
Education Webinar0/81 (0%)0/81 (0%)0/81 (0%)

Baseline characteristics

Age, Continuous
Age, Continuous(years)REACH Individual SessionEducation WebinarTotal
Mean60.2 ± 7.360.1 ± 6.360.2 ± 6.8
Sex: Female, Male
Sex: Female, Male(Participants)REACH Individual SessionEducation WebinarTotal
Female7472146
Male8917
Ethnicity (NIH/OMB)
Ethnicity (NIH/OMB)(Participants)REACH Individual SessionEducation WebinarTotal
Hispanic or Latino606
Not Hispanic or Latino7681157
Unknown or Not Reported000
Race (NIH/OMB)
Race (NIH/OMB)(Participants)REACH Individual SessionEducation WebinarTotal
American Indian or Alaska Native000
Asian022
Native Hawaiian or Other Pacific Islander112
Black or African American20626
White5970129
More than one race112
Unknown or Not Reported112
Region of Enrollment
Region of Enrollment(participants)REACH Individual SessionEducation WebinarTotal
United States8281163
Depression
Depression(units on a scale)REACH Individual SessionEducation WebinarTotal
Mean6.0 ± 4.37.3 ± 5.86.6 ± 5.2
Anxiety
Anxiety(units on a scale)REACH Individual SessionEducation WebinarTotal
Mean6.6 ± 4.77.2 ± 4.66.9 ± 4.7
Burden
Burden(units on a scale)REACH Individual SessionEducation WebinarTotal
Mean15.7 ± 8.617.9 ± 8.916.8 ± 8.8
07

Study locations

1 site
  • Memphis VA Medical Center
    Memphis, Tennessee 38104, United States
08

References and documents

Study documents

  • Protocol and statistical analysis plan · May 20, 2014
  • Informed consent form · Sep 26, 2017

Documents are hosted by the registry — open the source record to download them.

Individual participant data

Plan to share: No — Aggregate data will be available if requested

09

Registry details

Key details

Study ID
NCT03309046
Lead sponsor
Memphis VA Medical Center
Collaborators
U.S. Army Medical Research and Development Command
Responsible party
Linda O. Nichols, Ph.D. (Co-Director Caregiver Center, Memphis VA Medical Center) — Principal investigator
First posted
Oct 13, 2017
Start date
Apr 1, 2017
Primary completion
Feb 28, 2020
Completion
Mar 31, 2020
Results posted
Oct 23, 2023
Last update
Oct 23, 2023

Study contacts

Linda O Nichols, PhD
principal investigator · Memphis VAMC

Oversight

Data monitoring committee
No
FDA-regulated drug
No
FDA-regulated device
No
View the source record on ClinicalTrials.gov ↗

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