Design and Usability Testing of the Stroke Caregiver Support System: A Mobile-Friendly Website to Reduce Stroke Caregiver Burden.
Michelle R Caunca, Marialaura Simonetto, Gregory Hartley and 2 others
PMID 30418319WHAT IT FOUND
Stroke caregivers found a mobile-friendly support website easy to use and acceptable, with useful resources for stress and caregiving.
It was not compared with usual care, so it cannot yet be said to reduce caregiver burden.
Key findings
01Phase I included 7 caregivers and Phase II included 4 caregivers.
02In Phase III, participants were asked to use the website for about two months, and two modules were released biweekly.
03The study had no control group, so it cannot show that the website caused changes in outcomes.
STILL TO COME
How it was doneWhat they foundWhat it means for RNs
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What it does not show
The website was not tested against usual care, so any reported benefit cannot be separated from time, attention, or other supports. The sample was small, and the authors say outcome measures should be interpreted with caution. Most caregivers were women, and African American caregivers were underrepresented. The Phase III participant total is not stated in the supplied text.
The easy way to misread this
Do not conclude that the website reduces caregiver burden. The study tested usability and collected preliminary reports, and it had no control group, so it cannot show that the website caused any change.