Non-pharmacological interventions for caregivers ... - Update Software

Draper 2007 (Continued)
Bias Authors’ judgement Support for judgement
Random sequence generation (selection
bias)
Low risk “Placing names into a hat and drawing out one at a time ...”
Allocation concealment (selection bias) High risk “... and alternating between treatment or wait list control
groups.”
Blinding (performance bias and detection
bias)
All outcomes
Incomplete outcome data (attrition bias)
All outcomes
Low risk “Questionnaires sent to the homes of the paired groups.”
Unclear risk Description: immediate treatment group 2/19 (11%) missing at
end of scheduled follow-up
9/20 (45%) participants in wait list control group actively
dropped out from further participation in trial
Reason for missing data reported: no
Missing data balanced between groups: no
Statistical methods used to deal with missing data: none
Judgement: no reasons for missing data provided/insufficient
information to permit judgement
Selective reporting (reporting bias) High risk Description: selective omission of outcome from report
Judgement: not all study’s pre-specified primary outcomes have
been reported
Grant 2002
Methods RCT
Participants Source: participants recruited from 1 private and 1 state rehabilitation facility, Birmingham,
Alabama, USA
Definition of caregiver: not stated
Caregivers’ inclusion criteria: age ≥18; related to stroke survivor by blood or marriage;
responsible for providing care to stroke survivor ≥ 6 hours per day; have sufficient use
of English language to take part in telephone contacts; provided consent; contactable by
telephone and lived within 100 mile radius of study centres
Caregivers’ exclusion criteria: major history of debilitating diseases such as depression,
schizophrenia or alcoholism as measured by standard diagnostic criteria
Stroke survivors’ inclusion criteria: admitting diagnosis of ischaemic stroke either caused
by thrombi or emboli; FIM score between 36 and 96; discharge destination of home
Stroke survivors’ exclusion criteria: major history of debilitating diseases such as depression,
schizophrenia or alcoholism as measured by standard diagnostic criteria
Number of caregivers randomised: 74
Number of caregivers in intervention group: unclear
Number of caregivers in comparator group A: unclear
Number of caregivers in comparator group B: unclear
Number of caregivers assessed at final follow-up: 73
Non-pharmacological interventions for caregivers of stroke survivors (Review)
Copyright © 2011 The Cochrane Collaboration. Published by John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.
21