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CC BY-NC-ND 4.0 · Avicenna J Med 2017; 07(02): 54-63
DOI: 10.4103/2231-0770.203610
ORIGINAL ARTICLE

Efficacy of a multi-component psychosocial intervention program for caregivers of persons living with neurocognitive disorders, Alexandria, Egypt: A randomized controlled trial

Zeinab Nazeeh Shata
Department of Family Health, High Institute of Public Health, Alexandria University, Alexandria, Egypt
,
Marwa R Amin
Department of Psychogeriatrics, Al-Maamoura Psychiatric Hospital, Alexandria, Egypt
,
Heba M El-Kady
Department of Family Health, High Institute of Public Health, Alexandria University, Alexandria, Egypt
,
Mervat W Abu-Nazel
Department of Family Health, High Institute of Public Health, Alexandria University, Alexandria, Egypt
› Author Affiliations Financial support and sponsorship Nil.
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Abstract

Background: Unlike other chronic diseases, dementia caregiving is associated with enormous psychological burden, which stresses the need for caregivers-directed psychosocial interventions. Aim: This randomized controlled trial (RCT) was conducted to evaluate the short-term efficacy of a multi-component psychosocial intervention program for informal caregivers of persons with neurocognitive disorders in Alexandria, Egypt. Methods: Informal caregivers (120) were randomly assigned into intervention and control groups. The intervention group (60) participated in a multi-component program of 8 sessions, including psycho-education, group cognitive-behavioral therapy, and group social support. Program primary outcomes were assessed after program termination (post-1), and three months later (post-2). Measured outcomes included caregivers' knowledge, depression and anxiety symptoms, and perceived burden. Results: Caregivers' depression, anxiety, and perceived burden demonstrated significant drop at post-1, and post-2 compared to the control group (P< 0.001). The intervention group showed significant negative absolute change on depression, anxiety, and perceived burden measures, while on the dementia-related knowledge measure, a significant positive absolute change was found at post-1, and post-2 (P< 0.001), in comparison to controls. All outcome measures recorded a large effect size; the highest was for knowledge (partial eta2 = 0.98), and the least was for perceived burden (partial eta2 = 0.71). Conclusion: A multi-component psychosocial intervention for caregivers of persons with neurocognitive disorders demonstrated a short-term efficacy in reducing their burden, depression, and anxiety, as well as improving caregivers' knowledge. However, further research is needed to investigate long-term efficacy of the intervention.

Keywords

Cognitive-behavioral therapy - dementia - informal caregivers - neurocognitive disorders - psychoeducation - psychosocial interventions - randomized controlled trial


Publication History

Article published online:
09 August 2021

© 2017. Syrian American Medical Society. This is an open access article published by Thieme under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution-NonDerivative-NonCommercial-License, permitting copying and reproduction so long as the original work is given appropriate credit. Contents may not be used for commercial purposes, or adapted, remixed, transformed or built upon. (https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-nd/4.0/).

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