OBJECTIVE: This study will explore the effects that an online support group can have on traumatic brain injury (TBI) caregiver burden.
BACKGROUND: TBI is a public health concern that affects the lives of both patients and their caregivers. Caregivers often take responsibility for significant elements of TBI patients’ lives and, over time, this role takes a mental and physical toll on a caregiver’s own life. To date, there is limited research on the success of interventions, such as support groups and telehealth, in mitigating caregiver burden. There is much research that remains to be done. It is crucial that new and innovative support groups and telehealth interventions, such as the one outlined in this thesis, are trialed and analyzed by participants, in order to understand what methods are most effective in supporting these caregivers.
DESIGN: One-group before-after non-randomized innovative intervention study.
PARTICIPANTS: Eighty-five adult primary caregivers of TBI patients, recruited through the Brain Injury Association of America (BIAA).
INTERVENTION: Sixteen sessions of mindfulness-based cognitive behavioral therapy (CBT) led by trained clinical psychologists and delivered via group videoconference.
MAIN OUTCOME MEASURES: Zarit Interview Burden (ZBI); Brief Symptom Inventory (BSI).
DATA ANALYSIS: Descriptive demographics. Unadjusted effect size and score descriptive for ZBI and BSI. Paired t-tests to compare mean ZBI and mean BSI at pre-intervention and post-intervention. Stratify by baseline BSI score to determine if baseline BSI score predicts decrease in ZBI score over the course of the intervention.
CONCLUSIONS: The proposed study provides an innovative way to reduce burden on TBI caregivers and to analyze the feasibility and acceptance of the intervention. The study does, however, present limitations and, thus, outlines areas for future research. These limitations include the lack of a control group, the use of multiple clinical psychologists as group leaders, and the recruitment of only BIAA members who are comfortable using technology.
| Identifer | oai:union.ndltd.org:bu.edu/oai:open.bu.edu:2144/42147 |
| Date | 21 February 2021 |
| Creators | Guetta, Gabrielle |
| Contributors | Katz, Douglas |
| Source Sets | Boston University |
| Language | en_US |
| Detected Language | English |
| Type | Thesis/Dissertation |
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