Study published: Self-help intervention preferences among informal caregivers of people with chronic kidney disease
A study recently published in BMC Nephrology explored what informal caregivers of people living with chronic kidney disease want in self-help interventions.
(Image removed) The researchers found that informal caregivers were most interested in support available in person or via email from someone within a non-profit organisation.
Informal caregivers of people living with chronic kidney disease can experience mental health problems like depression and anxiety. However, support for this group of informal caregivers, and research into the best way to provide them with support, is limited. Researchers from U-CARE and the University of Exeter (UK) used an online survey to find out what informal caregivers of people living with chronic kidney disease wanted in a self-help intervention. For example, what type of information the intervention should have and how the intervention should be delivered.
Intervention preferences
The survey showed that informal caregivers were most interested in a self-help intervention available online (e.g. a website), as a workbook, or in person. The intervention would need to have information about many different topics that are important to informal caregivers. For example, information about living with a kidney condition, support services, physical health, and diet.
Support during self-help interventions
Self-help interventions should also be supported by someone who is familiar with the intervention. In this study, informal caregivers were most interested in support available in-person or via email from someone based at a non-profit organisation.
(Image removed) PhD candidate Chelsea Coumoundouros.
Photo: Mikael Wallerstedt
Chelsea Coumoundouros is the lead author of the paper:
– It was really interesting to find out that informal caregivers liked the idea of support for self-help interventions to come from someone at a non-profit organisation, compared to someone based in the healthcare system. We want to use the information from this study to develop a self-help intervention, and these results let us know that it will be important to work with non-profit organisations as we start the development process, says Chelsea Coumoundouros.
Read the full paper ‘Cognitive behavioural therapy self-help intervention preferences among informal caregivers of adults with chronic kidney disease: an online cross-sectional survey’. It is written by Chelsea Coumoundouros, Paul Farrand, Alexander Hamilton, Louise von Essen, Robbert Sanderman, and Joanne Woodford.