JMIR Publications

ABSTRACT

Background:

Besides healthcare professionals, informal caregivers play an important role in supporting community-dwelling older adults in daily living. Digital technologies have the potential to offer informal caregivers immediate caregiving knowledge, enabling them to provide high-quality care to their loved ones from the comfort of home. This, in turn, can alleviate caregiving stress levels.

Objective:

The aim of this study was to develop a telecare-based intervention programme, with the collaborative efforts of a health-social team, to alleviate stress levels and the caregiving burden, while enhancing self-efficacy, reducing depression levels, and improving the quality of life of informal caregivers of community-dwelling older adults.

Methods:

This is a randomized controlled trial. The subjects were informal caregivers who had provided care to an adult aged ≥60 for at least 4 hours per week for at least 3 months. The intervention group received a 3-month programme comprising three intervention components: online nurse case management supported by a health and social care team, an online resource centre, and a discussion forum. The control group received the usual care, namely, six face-to-face, group education sessions in a community centre. Data were collected at two time points – pre-intervention (T1) and post-intervention (T2). The primary outcome was stress levels, and secondary outcomes were self-efficacy, depression levels, quality of life, and caregiving burden.

Results:

Of the 94 potential community-dwelling older adults assessed for eligibility, 75 eligible participants were randomized into the intervention (n=38) or control group (n=37). The intervention group had a statistically significant higher level of self-efficacy (t=1.98, p=.043) and lower level of depression (t=-2.24, p=.032) than the control group. Within-group effects were also observed in perceived stress level, self-efficacy level, depressive level, mental component of quality of life, and caregiving burden in the intervention group from T1 to T2.

Conclusions:

Governments worldwide have put much effort into supporting older people, but the needs of primary caregivers of older adults are invariably neglected. This study holds significant value for policymakers and healthcare professionals as it provides valuable insights into the effectiveness of employing a health-social partnership team using telecare delivery methods to support caregivers. The findings indicate that such an intervention led to significant improvements in the physical and psychological well-being of caregivers. This, in turn, can have a positive impact on their ability to fulfil their caregiving responsibilities over the long term. Clinical Trial: ClinicalTrials.gov NCT05636982; https://clinicaltrials.gov/study/NCT05636982