Currently, there are around 40 million family caregivers in the USA, with over 3 million of those being CGs of patients with cancer. Also, an approximate share of 20% of CGs live at a distance of more than an hour from the patient and are considered the distance CGs or DCGs who report higher distress and anxiety.
The study focuses on analyzing the overall effectiveness of an intervention to reduce anxiety and distress in DCGs of patients with cancer. The study was a random but controlled trial. Over 4 months of study, research delivered three arms of the intervention.
Arm 1 received 4 monthly videoconference-tailored coaching sessions, participated in patient’s appointments with the oncologist, and had access to a website designed for DCGs. Arm 2 received the two benefits except for the coaching sessions. Arm 3 had access to only websites designed for DCGs.
The results were presented to 302 who offered the pre and post-intervention data. Arm 1 had the greatest percentage of DCGs who reflected an improvement in anxiety at 18.6% and distress at 25.2%.
The conclusion that one can draw from the study is that coaching and the use of video conferencing technology effectively reduce the anxiety and distress level of the DCGs. The same is applicable for local CGs during adverse conditions like pandemic COVID19.
Ref: https://ascopubs.org/doi/full/10.1200/OP.20.00576
