An aging population and wartime injuries has led to a growing population needing caregivers. This article evaluates a pilot study of an Internet-based, skills-enhancement workshop developed for the United States Department of Veteran Affairs. Sixty caregivers are enrolled. Either the caregivers or people being cared for are Veterans living in California, Southern Nevada, or Hawaii. Measures include health indicators, health behaviors, and health care utilization. Baseline measures are compared to the same measures at 3 months using paired t tests. Participation in the program is examined, including number of sessions and number of posts. Caregivers show significant reductions in caregiver burden, depression, pain, and stress. Caregiver self-efficacy and two exercise measures show improvement. The care partners’ overall health show improvement (p<.05). The program successfully reaches rural residents, and participation is high. The Building Better Caregivers program is acceptable to caregivers, whose health, emotional health, and health behaviors show improvement. Caregivers successfully participate in the program.
BanduraA. (1997). Self-efficacy: the exercise of control. New York: W.H. Freeman
2.
DevinsG. M.MandinH.HonsR. B.BurgessE. D.KlassenJ.. (1990). Illness intrusiveness and quality of life in end-stage renal disease: Comparison and stability across treatment modalities. Health Psychology, 9, 117-142.
3.
KroenkeK.SpitzerR. L. (2002). The PHQ-9: A new depression diagnostic and severity measure. Psychiatric Annals, 35, 509-521.
4.
LorigK. R.RitterP. L.DostA.PlantK.LaurentD. D.McNeilI. (2008). The Expert Patients Programme online, a 1-year study of an Internet-based self-management programme for people with long-term conditions. Chronic Illness, 4, 247-56.
5.
LorigK. R.RitterP. L.LaurentD. D.PlantK. (2006). Internet-based chronic disease self-management: A randomized trial. Medical Care, 44, 964-971.
6.
LorigK. R.RitterP. L.LaurentD. D.PlantK. (2008). The internet-based arthritis self-management program: A one-year randomized trial for patients with arthritis or fibromyalgia. Arthritis and Rheumatism, 59, 1009-1017.
7.
LorigK.RitterP. L.LaurentD. D.PlantK.GreenM.JerniganV. B.. (2010). Online diabetes self-management program: a randomized study. Diabetes Care, 33, 1275-1281
8.
LorigKStewartA.RitterP. L.GonzalezV.LaurentD.LynchJ. (1996). Outcome measures for health education and other health care interventions. Thousand Oaks, CA: Sage.
ParksS. M.NovielliK. D. (2000). A practical guide to caring for caregivers. American Family Physician, 62, 2613-2622.
11.
RabinowitzY. G.MausbachB. T.CoonD. W.DeppC.ThompsonL. W.Thompson-GallagherD. (2006). The moderating effect of self-efficacy on intervention response in women family caregivers of older adults with dementia. American Journal of Geriatric Psychiatry, 14, 642-649.
12.
RabinowitzY. G.MausbachB. T.Thompson-GallagherD. (2009). Self-efficacy as a moderator of the relationship between care recipient memory and behavioral problems and caregiver depression in female dementia caregivers. Alzheimer Disease & Associated Disorders, 23, 389-394.
13.
RitterP.GonzálezV.LaurentD. D.LorigK. R. (2006). Measurement of pain using the Visual Numeric Scale. Journal of Rheumatology, 33, 574-580.
14.
RitterP. L.StewartA. L.KaymazH.SobelD. S.BlochD. A.LorigK. R. (2001). Self-reports of health care utilization compared to provider records. Journal of Clinical Epidemiology, 54, 136-141.
15.
SteffenA. M.McKibbinC.ZeissA. M.Thompson-GallagherD.BanduraA. (2002). The revised scale for caregiving self-efficacy: reliability and validity studies. The Journals of Gerontology Series B, Psychological Sciences and Social Sciences, 57, 74-86.
16.
ThompsonC. A.SpilsburyK.HallJ.BirksY.BarnesC.AdamsonJ. (2007) Systematic review of information and support interventions for caregivers of people with dementia. BMC Geriatrics, 7, 18.
17.
Thompson-GallagherD.CoonD. W. (2007). Evidence-based psychological treatments for distress in family caregivers of older adults. Psychology and Aging, 22, 37-51.
18.
Thompson-GallagherD.CoonD. W.SolanoN.AmblerC.RabinowitzY.ThompsonL. W. (2003). Change in indices of distress among Latina and Anglo female caregivers of elderly relatives with dementia: Site specific results from the REACH national collaborative study. The Gerontologist, 43, 580-591.
19.
Thompson-GallagherD.GrayH. L.DupartT.JimenezD.ThompsonL. W. (2008). Effectiveness of cognitive/ behavioral small group intervention for reduction of depression and stress in non-Hispanic White and Hispanic/Latino women dementia family caregivers: Outcomes and mediators of change. Journal of Rational-Emotive and Cognitive-Behavior Therapy, 26, 286-303.
20.
Thompson-GallagherD.GrayH. L.TangP. C.PuC. Y.LeungL. Y.WangP. C.. (2007). Impact of in-home intervention versus telephone support in reducing depression and stress of Chinese caregivers: Results of a pilot study. American Journal of Geriatric Psychiatry, 15, 425-434.
21.
ThorntonM.TravisS. S. (2003). Analysis of the reliability of the modified caregiver strain index. Journals of Gerontology: Social Sciences, 58B, S127-S132.
22.
United Nations Department of Economic and Social Affairs. (2008). World Urbanization Prospects. Available from http://esa.un.org/unup/.
23.
U.S. Department of Commerce. (1985). National health interview survey. Washington, DC: Bureau of the Census.
U.S. Government Accountability Office. (2008). VA National initiatives and local programs that address education and support for families of returning veterans. Available from http://www.gao.gov/products/GAO-09–22R
