Telehealth Powerful Tools for Caregivers Effectiveness Study

Purpose

An estimated 43.5 million Americans serve as an unpaid caregiver over the course of a year. Caregivers are a valuable part of healthcare systems, providing a framework for the medical system to work in the home. Caregivers assist in patient follow through with medical advice, transportation to medical appointments, activation of emergency medical services, and promotion of patient quality of life. Caregivers are an asset to the healthcare system, as they reduce overall healthcare costs; in 2013, unpaid care was estimated at 470 billion dollars a year in the United States. Unfortunately, caregivers are at risk for both physical and mental health problems. In-person programs do exist that are designed to help caregivers care for themselves and mitigate their increased health risks. However, many caregivers are unable to attend such programs.

Caregivers face barriers to accessing wellness programming due to lack of time, distance from service delivery locations, availability of services, and health or caregiving demands limiting the ability to leave home. Telehealth offers a solution to many of the barriers caregivers report. Telehealth is the use of technology to deliver healthcare services at a distance. Telehealth allows people access to services regardless of physical location, availability of transportation, and availability of respite care. Telehealth also reduces travel related costs for both providers and clients. While telehealth may provide a solution to increase access to services for those who face barriers to in-person services, there is limited information on the efficacy of telehealth delivered services. No studies have been reported that directly compare outcomes from telehealth and in-person wellness programs for caregivers.

This research will fill a needed gap to inform service delivery decision making related to telehealth delivered programming for caregivers. Consequently, the overall goal of this proposed research is to determine the efficacy of translating the PTC program to a telehealth delivery format. The specific objectives are: 1) To determine whether the outcomes are different for caregivers in a PTC program delivered via telehealth compared to one delivered in person. 2) To examine program attendance and reasons for missed sessions.

These objectives will be addressed by examining the following outcomes: 1) a general rating of health, 2) the Center for Epidemiologic Studies Depression Scale - Revised (CESD-R), 3) self-care behaviors (health self-care neglect, frequency of stress management and relaxation activities, and exercise frequency), self-efficacy, use of community resources, 4) the overall caregiving experience as measured by the Bakas Caregiving Outcomes Scale (BCOS), and 5) class attendance including reasons for missed classes.

The existing program that this study proposes to examine is Powerful Tools for Caregivers, which has demonstrated positive outcomes for caregivers when delivered in-person. These benefits include reduced health risk behaviors; increased frequency in participation in self-care activities such as relaxation, exercise, and use of stress management techniques; demonstrate increased self-efficacy; lower stress levels; and report decreased caregiver burden. If the telehealth delivery method is proven effective by this research, more caregivers will be able to receive these benefits, thereby promoting positive health behaviors that prevent physical and mental health problems in this at-risk population.

PTC is an evidence-based six-week program that addresses caregiver health by promoting self-care. Collaborating community organizations offer the program at little to no cost. A preliminary feasibility study was done to prepare for the proposed research. The feasibility study involved four caregivers. Consistent class attendance and Telehealth Usability Questionnaire scores demonstrated the telehealth delivery format was feasible, and qualitative themes indicated caregivers had a positive experience. A pilot study was then conducted involving 18 caregivers in four PTC groups in four different states and examined both caregiver outcomes and the class leader experience of delivering PTC via telehealth. Results have informed the design of this proposed study.

Methodology

The proposed study is a collaboration between the National PTC Office, collaborating community agencies, and the principal investigator (PI) at Concordia University Wisconsin (CUW). The National PTC Office will provide supervision to assure fidelity to the PTC program. The National PTC Office will assist with recruiting existing PTC Class Leaders who are certified Master Trainers (those who are both certified PTC class leaders and certified to train other class leaders) to conduct PTC classes. PTC class leaders will be selected through an application process to meet criteria for experience in leading classes and to represent a diverse geographical region. These class leaders will undergo human subjects research training and work with the PI to assure compliance with the research protocol.

The proposed study will employ a quasi-experimental nonequivalent pretest-posttest design to compare outcomes from in-person to telehealth delivered PTC classes. PTC classes are conducted by a pair of class leaders who model concepts. Each pair of class leaders will conduct both a telehealth and in-person PTC class. This will control for the influence of class leader personality on outcomes.

Collaborating community organizations will recruit 105 caregivers to attend PTC classes delivered by seven pairs of class leaders. Class sizes will be unequal due to necessity. Traditional in-person PTC programs are delivered to groups of 10 caregivers. Telehealth classes are limited to five participants due to limitations in screen views and internet bandwidth. Class leaders require a video screen, as do each participant. It is distracting to view more than six video screens at once; furthermore, adding more than six participants degrades the video and audio quality due to limitations in home internet connection bandwidths. The in-person classes include partner discussions. Telehealth technology does not allow private partner discussions; however, the smaller group format is conducive to full group conversations for these aspects of the program. To control for the effect of class leaders' personality, class leaders will deliver one telehealth PTC program and one in-person PTC program. This creates unequal group sizes of 35 participants in the telehealth PTC group and 70 participants in the in-person PTC group.

The sample of 105 caregivers was determined based on a power analysis calculated using G Power software and effect sizes and attrition rates from the pilot study data. In the pilot study the CESD-R had a large effect size, while the BCOS and the other health and self-care related variables on the survey had medium to small effect sizes. The PI selected the BCOS with a Cohen's d = 0.26 for the power analysis, an alpha error probability of 0.05, and power of 0.80 to calculate sample size using G Power software. The result was a recommended sample size of 82 participants. The pilot study had a 33% rate of attrition. Planning for this level of drop out at posttest and another 33% at 6-months required an additional 15 participants be added to the sample size for a total of 97 participants in each group.

Participants will be recruited through the partnering community organizations of the PTC class leaders. Participants will be informal (unpaid) caregivers, speak English, have the cognitive ability to participate in PTC classes, and for the telehealth delivered classes have a home internet connection, computer with a camera and microphone, and demonstrate the cognitive ability to use a computer and participate in the program. PTC class leaders will screen participants to be sure they meet eligibility criteria.

Telehealth classes will use VSee software to allow caregivers to participate in the PTC program synchronously via secure videoconferencing from their own home. VSee is a free software program designed to deliver secure telehealth services. Class leaders will guide participants in installation of the software on their home computer. The telehealth process was developed and tested in earlier phases of this research.

Participants will undergo assessment one week before and one week after the PTC program, and at a six-month follow up. Outcome measures replicate previous PTC research and offer additional outcome measures meaningful to caregiver wellness. Assessments include: the Center for Epidemiologic Studies Depression Scale - Revised (CESD-R), the Bakas Caregiving Outcomes Scale (BCOS), and a PTC Taking Care of You Survey which includes items from the original PTC program outcomes research related to caregiver self-efficacy, health self-care neglect, exercise frequency, relaxation frequency, and service utilization. The survey will also include caregiver demographics and questions related to socialization. The CESD-R is an established tool to assess symptoms of depression and the BCOS captures both positive and negative aspects of the caregiver experience. Both tools have established reliability and validity. The three assessment tools will be delivered via one secure electronic survey link issued by the PI. PTC class leaders will record attendance and reasons for any missed classes.

Data Analysis

Microsoft Excel and SPSS version 25 software will be used for statistical analysis. Statistical analysis will include descriptive statistics, and a mixed design or split plot analysis of variance (ANOVA), which includes repeated measures, to examine differences in the variables of interest over time: CESD-R score, BCOS score, class attendance, caregiver self-efficacy, health self-care neglect, exercise frequency, relaxation frequency, frequency of service utilization, and frequency of socialization. Groups (telehealth delivered group n = 35 and in-person delivery model n = 70) will be analyzed for differences prior to running ANOVA.