Journal
JOURNAL OF THE AMERICAN GERIATRICS SOCIETY
Volume -, Issue -, Pages -Publisher
WILEY
DOI: 10.1111/jgs.18597
Keywords
caregiver support; caregiver training; elder abuse; elder abuse prevention; elder mistreatment intervention
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This pilot study found that the COACH caregiver support intervention successfully reduced elder mistreatment among older adults with chronic health conditions. Next steps include testing the intervention's mechanism in a fully powered RCT and scaling the intervention for testing in various care delivery systems.
Background: Elder mistreatment (EM) harms individuals, families, communities, and society as a whole. Yet research on interventions is lagging, and no rigorous studies demonstrating effective prevention have been published. This pilot study examines whether a first-of-its-kind coaching intervention reduced the experience of EM among older adults with chronic health conditions, including dementia.Methods: We used a double-blind, randomized controlled trial to test a strengths-based person-centered caregiver support intervention, developed from evidence-based approaches used in other types of family violence. Participants (n = 80), family caregivers of older adults who were members of Kaiser Permanente, completed surveys at baseline, post-test, and 3-month follow-up. The primary outcome was caregiver-reported EM; additional proximal outcomes were caregiver burden, quality-of-life, anxiety, and depression. Nonparametric tests (Mann-Whitney U, Fisher's Exact, Wilcoxon Signed Rank, and McNemar's) were used to make comparisons between treatment and control groups and across time points.Results: The treatment group had no EM after intervention completion (assessed at 3-month follow-up), a significantly lower rate than the control group (treatment = 0%, control = 23.1%, p = 0.010).Conclusions: In this pilot study, we found that the COACH caregiver support intervention successfully reduced EM of persons living with chronic illness, including dementia. Next steps will include: (1) testing the intervention's mechanism in a fully powered RCT and (2) scaling the intervention for testing in a variety of care delivery systems.
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