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

Hartke 2003 (Continued)
Dose/frequency/timing of intervention: 8 x 1-hour sessions
Intervention length: not applicable
Co-interventions: not applicable
Title: control condition
Characteristics: a publication on stress management and a brief description of caregivers’
stress and stroke
First comparator provided by: not applicable
First comparator delivered: not applicable
Dose/frequency/timing of first comparator: not applicable
Outcomes Outcome measures: CES-D; UCLA Loneliness Scale; the Caregiver Competence Scale;
BI; the Pressing Problem Index
Timing of assessment: immediately after support group; and 6 months after enrolling in
study
Notes
Risk of bias
Bias Authors’ judgement Support for judgement
Random sequence generation (selection
bias)
Unclear risk “Participants were then randomly assigned to a usual care or
telephone support group condition and were followed-up for 6
months to test the enduring effects of the intervention.”
Allocation concealment (selection bias) Unclear risk “Participants were then randomly assigned to a usual care or
telephone support group condition and were followed-up for 6
months to test the enduring effects of the intervention.”
Blinding (performance bias and detection
bias)
All outcomes
Incomplete outcome data (attrition bias)
All outcomes
Unclear risk “All assessments were conducted by members of the research
staff via individual telephone interviews.”
High risk Description: 25/68 (37%) participants in treatment arm lost
to follow-up and 11/56 (20%) participants in the comparator
group lost to follow-up
Reason for missing data reported: yes, but not in sufficient detail:
“the most frequent reason for dropping out of control group was
difficulty scheduling appointments, whereas the most frequent
reasons for dropping out of the treatment group were death of
spouse or perception of lack of need for intervention.”
Missing data balanced between groups: no
Statistical methods used to deal with missing data: none
Judgement: difference in means among missing outcomes
enough to induce clinically relevant bias in observed effect size
Selective reporting (reporting bias) Low risk All study’s pre-specified outcomes have been reported
Non-pharmacological interventions for caregivers of stroke survivors (Review)
Copyright © 2011 The Cochrane Collaboration. Published by John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.
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