Feasibility and Preliminary Impacts of a Stress Reduction Intervention for Caregivers of Adolescents and Young Adults With Intellectual and Developmental Disabilities.
Amy E Bodde, Brian C Helsel, Erik Willis and 3 others
PMID 41741966WHAT IT FOUND
A 12-week programme combining yoga and support groups was feasible for caregivers of adolescents and young adults with disabilities.
Participants reported feeling less alone, but stress scores and cortisol changes were small and the study was not powered to prove effectiveness.
Key findings
01The intervention was feasible: caregivers attended an average of 8 of 12 sessions, and 16 of the 20 recruited participants were analysed for outcomes.
02Perceived stress decreased by 5.8% and salivary cortisol decreased by 24.1%, but no participant moved from the moderate stress category to the low stress category.
03Caregivers reported increased social support (9.8%) and family empowerment (5.3%), and exit interviews indicated they felt less alone and more confident in their caregiving.
STILL TO COME
How it was doneWhat they found
Read the rest of this summary
You get three full summaries a month, free, and we do not ask for a card. Search, the TL;DRs and your library stay unlimited either way.
What it does not show
The study was a single-arm pilot with no control group, so it cannot determine if the observed changes were due to the intervention or other factors like time or placebo effect. The study was not statistically powered to detect significant changes in secondary outcomes, so the reported percentage changes should be interpreted with caution. The sample was homogeneous, consisting primarily of highly educated female caregivers, which limits generalisability to fathers, partners, or caregivers from different socioeconomic backgrounds. Attendance was lower than the 75% benchmark, suggesting that the 2-hour weekly commitment may be difficult for caregivers to sustain. The Modified Caregiver Strain Index was used, which was originally designed for dementia caregivers and may not fully capture the specific strains faced by caregivers of individuals with intellectual and developmental disabilities.
Declared interests
Dr. Lauren T. Ptomey received personal fees from Healthy Weight Research Network for Children with ASD and DD, outside the submitted work. No other conflicts were declared.
The easy way to misread this
Do not interpret the 24% drop in cortisol or the 6% drop in perceived stress as proof that this programme works. The study had no control group and was not powered to detect statistically significant changes, so these small shifts could easily be due to chance, natural variation, or the placebo effect of attention.
Summarised by AI from the full paper, without a clinician reviewing it. Check it against the source before it changes what you do. Read it on PubMed →