An app-based just-in-time-adaptive self-management intervention for care partners: The CareQOL feasibility pilot study.

The trial was not powered to test whether the intervention works; the authors say so and call the comparisons exploratory. Ten separate quality-of-life comparisons were run, so some of the three significant results could still be chance even though the correction did not remove them. Everyone knew whether they were getting messages, and the control group still wore the same Fitbit and answered the same daily questions, so part of any benefit may come from taking part rather than from the app. Caregivers were mostly White and mostly women, so the results may not carry to other caregivers. All participants came from one US centre and had to own a smartphone or tablet with internet and be willing to use it, which leaves out caregivers without that technology. The two groups tended to differ on whether the care partner worked; adjusting for this did not change the pattern, but the groups were small. The findings say nothing about care partners of people with more acute conditions or other chronic illnesses.

The text supplied does not report who funded the work and contains no conflict-of-interest declaration. It states that data and supporting materials are available by emailing the corresponding author and that the trial is registered on ClinicalTrials.gov (NCT04556591).

Do not read the three significant 3-month differences as proof the app works. The authors state the trial was not powered to test efficacy, the comparisons were exploratory across many outcomes, and the daily ratings showed no change in depression in either group.