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Befriending carers of people with dementia: randomised controlled trial
Georgina Charlesworth1, Lee Shepstone, Edward Wilson
1Centre for Behavioural and Social Sciences in Medicine, University College London, London W1W 7EJ. g.charlesworth@ucl.ac.uk
Objective:
To evaluate the effectiveness of a voluntary sector based befriending scheme in improving psychological wellbeing and quality of life for family carers of people with dementia.
Design:
Single blind randomised controlled trial.
Setting:
Community settings in East Anglia and London.
Participants:
236 family carers of people with primary progressive dementia.
Intervention:
Contact with a befriender facilitator and offer of match with a trained lay volunteer befriender compared with no befriender facilitator contact; all participants continued to receive "usual care."
Main Outcome Measures:
Carers' mood (hospital anxiety and depression scale-depression) and health related quality of life (EuroQoL) at 15 months post-randomisation.
Results:
The intention to treat analysis showed no benefit for the intervention "access to a befriender facilitator" on the primary outcome measure or on any of the secondary outcome measures.
Conclusions:
In common with many carers' services, befriending schemes are not taken up by all carers, and providing access to a befriending scheme is not effective in improving wellbeing. Trial registration Current CONTROLLED TRIALS: ISRCTN08130075.
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