Caregiver training: Evidence of its effectiveness for cognitive and functional improvement in older adults.
Miriam Sanjuán, Elena Navarro, María Dolores Calero
PMID 35332605WHAT IT FOUND
Older adults cared for by trained caregivers improved in patient-rated quality of life and cognitive test scores, while usual-care controls declined on one cognitive measure; only the quality-of-life score differed clearly between groups.
Key findings
01On direct assessment tests, the only clear between-group post-assessment difference was the patient-rated EuroQol, where lower scores mean better quality of life; the trained group's scores fell and the control group's stayed or rose.
02The trained-caregiver group's CAPE cognitive scores rose from 27.05 to 27.91, while the control group's fell from 27.77 to 26.61; the paper reported a group-by-time interaction of p = .001.
03The paper reported a group-by-time interaction for caregiver-reported Barthel independence of p = .006, with the control group falling from 66.48 to 62.62, but its stated significance threshold was p < .005.
STILL TO COME
How it was doneWhat they foundWhat it means for OTs
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What it does not show
Participants were not randomised; they were assigned according to centre recommendations, so differences between centres may have influenced results. The treatment and control groups were unequal (100 older adults versus 60), and the authors kept the unequal samples rather than removing participants. The three-month period may have been too short to show clear functional change, and the authors noted this. Functional ability was judged only by caregiver reports, not by direct testing of the older adults. Some reported p values, such as p = .012 for the MEC interaction and p = .006 for the Barthel interaction, did not meet the paper's stated p < .005 threshold. The control and treatment groups came from different settings, with most controls from residences and many treatment participants from civic centres, which may reflect different usual care.
Declared interests
The authors declared no competing interests. The work was funded by Ministerio de Educación y Cultura.
The easy way to misread this
Do not read this as proof that caregiver training improves daily independence. The functional outcome was caregiver-reported, the groups were not randomised, and the paper's stated significance threshold was p < .005 while the Barthel interaction was p = .006.