Self-administered Acupressure for Symptom Management of Caregiver Stress

NCT02526446 | Completed DMC

• 1 other identifier: UW 15-367
• Study Type: interventional
• Target: 207
• Locations: 1 country
• Sites: 1

Brief Summary

This proposed study is to evaluate the effectiveness of a self-administered acupressure intervention on caregiver stress and associated distress symptoms of fatigue, insomnia and depression in Chinese family caregivers of an elderly family member.

Conditions

Stress

Keywords

Chinese; caregiver stress; self-administered acupressure

Outcome Measures

Primary Outcomes (1)

• Change in caregiver stress

  Score on measure of caregiver stress by Chinese version of the Caregiver Burden Inventory (C-CBI)

  Baseline (T0, on entry to study before intervention), (ii) post-training (T1, 2-week later on completion of the group training, (iii) post-intervention (T2, 6-week later on completion intervention, and (iv) follow-up (T3, 4-week post-intervention)

Secondary Outcomes (4)

• Fatigue score

  Baseline (T0, on entry to study before intervention), (ii) post-training (T1, 2-week later on completion of the group training, (iii) post-intervention (T2, 6-week later on completion intervention, and (iv) follow-up (T3, 4-week post-intervention)

• Insomnia score

  Baseline (T0, on entry to study before intervention), (ii) post-training (T1, 2-week later on completion of the group training, (iii) post-intervention (T2, 6-week later on completion intervention, and (iv) follow-up (T3, 4-week post-intervention)

• Depression score

  Baseline (T0, on entry to study before intervention), (ii) post-training (T1, 2-week later on completion of the group training, (iii) post-intervention (T2, 6-week later on completion intervention, and (iv) follow-up (T3, 4-week post-intervention)

• Caregiver's quality of life (QoL)

  Baseline (T0, on entry to study before intervention), (ii) post-training (T1, 2-week later on completion of the group training, (iii) post-intervention (T2, 6-week later on completion intervention, and (iv) follow-up (T3, 4-week post-intervention)

Study Arms (2)

Self-administered acupressure

EXPERIMENTAL

The intervention consists of a total of 28 hours over a period of 8 weeks. It comprises of individual learning and practice, self-practice at home, and home follow-up.

Behavioral: Self-administered acupressure

Wait-list control

OTHER

The control group will receive a wait-list control condition (the same self-administered acupressure intervention but after the intervention group has completed the treatment condition).

Other: wait-list control

Interventions

Self-administered acupressure BEHAVIORAL

The intervention consists of a total of 28 hours over a period of 8 weeks: i) Individual learning and practice: The training session will be one-on-one provided twice a week for two consecutive weeks (5 hours) in the participant's home. ii) Self-practice at home: From 3rd to 8th week, participant will engage in self-administered acupressure at home for 15 minutes twice a day for 6 weeks (21 hours). iii) Home follow-up: During the 3rd and 4th week (i.e. after the 2-week training session), a 1-hour home visit will be conducted for reinforcement of learning and self-practice by the same team of trainers once a week for 2 weeks (2 hours).

Self-administered acupressure

wait-list control OTHER

The control group will receive a wait-list control condition (the same self-administered acupressure intervention but after the intervention group has completed the treatment condition).

Wait-list control

Eligibility Criteria

• Age: 21 Years+
• Sex: all
• Healthy Volunteers: Yes
• Age Groups: Adult (18-64), Older Adult (65+)

You may qualify if:

• Chinese woman or man, 21 years of age or older, able to communicate in Cantonese or Putonghua,
• Primary caregiver of an elderly family member aged ≥ 65 years,
• Providing unpaid care to the care recipient at no less than 14 hours per week,
• Primarily responsible for making day-to-day decisions and providing assistance to the care recipient in tasks relating to activities of daily living (e.g. bathing, dressing, toileting etc.) and/or instrumental activities of daily living (e.g. housework, grocery shopping, preparing meals, managing medications etc.), and
• Screened positive for caregiver stress (a summed score of ≥ 25 as measured by the Caregiver Burden Inventory), with symptoms of fatigue (a mean score of ≥ 4 as measured by the Piper Fatigue Scale), insomnia (a global score of \> 5 as measured by the Pittsburgh Sleep Quality Index), OR depression (a total score of ≥ 10 as measured by the Patient Health

You may not qualify if:

• Cognitive impairment (a Mini Mental State Examination (MMSE) score of ≤ 23), or
• Major chronic illness (e.g. cancer) or currently taking any medications (e.g. opiates) that may prevent them from performing the intervention, or
• Participated in intervention studies involving acupressure or acupuncture previously.

Sponsors & Collaborators

• The University of Hong Kong: lead

Study Sites (1)

HKSKH Lady MacLehose Center

Hong Kong, Hong Kong

Location

Related Publications (7)

• Tiwari A, Fong DY, Yuen KH, Yuk H, Pang P, Humphreys J, Bullock L. Effect of an advocacy intervention on mental health in Chinese women survivors of intimate partner violence: a randomized controlled trial. JAMA. 2010 Aug 4;304(5):536-43. doi: 10.1001/jama.2010.1052.

  PMID: 20682933 RESULT

• Zhang Y, Shen CL, Peck K, Brismee JM, Doctolero S, Lo DF, Lim Y, Lao L. Training Self-Administered Acupressure Exercise among Postmenopausal Women with Osteoarthritic Knee Pain: A Feasibility Study and Lessons Learned. Evid Based Complement Alternat Med. 2012;2012:570431. doi: 10.1155/2012/570431. Epub 2012 Oct 23.

  PMID: 23193423 RESULT

• Tiwari A, Chan CL, Ho RT, Tsao GS, Deng W, Hong AW, Fong DY, Fung HY, Pang EP, Cheung DS, Ma JL. Effect of a qigong intervention program on telomerase activity and psychological stress in abused Chinese women: a randomized, wait-list controlled trial. BMC Complement Altern Med. 2014 Aug 15;14:300. doi: 10.1186/1472-6882-14-300.

  PMID: 25127878 RESULT

• Yeung WF, Chung KF, Poon MM, Ho FY, Zhang SP, Zhang ZJ, Ziea ET, Wong VT. Acupressure, reflexology, and auricular acupressure for insomnia: a systematic review of randomized controlled trials. Sleep Med. 2012 Sep;13(8):971-84. doi: 10.1016/j.sleep.2012.06.003. Epub 2012 Jul 25.

  PMID: 22841034 RESULT

• Wang XM, Walitt B, Saligan L, Tiwari AF, Cheung CW, Zhang ZJ. Chemobrain: a critical review and causal hypothesis of link between cytokines and epigenetic reprogramming associated with chemotherapy. Cytokine. 2015 Mar;72(1):86-96. doi: 10.1016/j.cyto.2014.12.006. Epub 2015 Jan 5.

  PMID: 25573802 RESULT

• Cheung DST, Tiwari A, Yeung WF, Yu DSF, So MKP, Chau PH, Wang XM, Lum TYS, Yuk Fung HYK, Ng BYM, Zhang ZJ, Lao L. Self-Administered Acupressure for Caregivers of Older Family Members: A Randomized Controlled Trial. J Am Geriatr Soc. 2020 Jun;68(6):1193-1201. doi: 10.1111/jgs.16357. Epub 2020 Feb 25.

  PMID: 32096884 DERIVED

• Tiwari A, Lao L, Wang AX, Cheung DS, So MK, Yu DS, Lum TY, Yuk Fung HY, Yeung JW, Zhang ZJ. Self-administered acupressure for symptom management among Chinese family caregivers with caregiver stress: a randomized, wait-list controlled trial. BMC Complement Altern Med. 2016 Oct 28;16(1):424. doi: 10.1186/s12906-016-1409-1.

  PMID: 27793197 DERIVED

MeSH Terms

Conditions

Caregiver Burden

Condition Hierarchy (Ancestors)

Stress, Psychological; Behavioral Symptoms; Behavior

Study Officials

• Agnes Tiwari, PhD

  School of Nursing, HKU

  PRINCIPAL INVESTIGATOR

Study Design

• Study Type: interventional
• Phase: not applicable
• Allocation: RANDOMIZED
• Masking: SINGLE
• Who Masked: OUTCOMES ASSESSOR
• Purpose: HEALTH SERVICES RESEARCH
• Intervention Model: PARALLEL
• Sponsor Type: OTHER
• Responsible Party: PRINCIPAL INVESTIGATOR
• PI Title: Professor and Head of School of Nursing

Study Record Dates

• First Submitted: August 10, 2015
• First Posted: August 18, 2015
• Study Start: July 1, 2016
• Primary Completion: December 1, 2018
• Study Completion: December 1, 2018
• Last Updated: April 10, 2019

Record last verified: 2019-04

Locations

HK (1)