Impact of caregivers' psychological and caregiving status on recruitment, conversion, and retention in stem cell therapy trials for cerebral palsy: A prospective survey analysis.
Xiaoli Huang, Xixian Qin, Mengyao Li and 6 others
PMID 37431277WHAT IT FOUND
Caregivers who stayed in the stem cell trial had higher resilience scores than those who dropped out.
Families with more money, better-educated caregivers, clearer diagnoses, and fewer other conditions were also more likely to complete the trial.
Key findings
01Caregivers who completed the trial had significantly higher resilience scores (73.150 ± 18.557) compared to those who did not (65.240 ± 14.289).
02Retention was associated with higher family monthly income, higher caregiver education level, clearer diagnosis of cerebral palsy type, and fewer comorbid disorders.
03Caregiver burden and caregiving ability scores did not significantly differ between families who completed the trial and those who did not.
STILL TO COME
How it was doneWhat they foundWhat it means for RNs
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
Small sample size (n = 88), with only 20 families in the retention group. Conducted at a single center in China, limiting generalizability to other cultures and healthcare systems. The study design is correlational, so it cannot prove that low resilience causes dropout. Caregiver burden and ability were not significantly different between groups, suggesting other unmeasured factors influence retention.
Declared interests
The authors declare no conflicts of interest. Funding was provided by various Chinese government and science funds.
The easy way to misread this
Do not assume that reducing caregiver burden will improve trial retention. The study found no significant difference in burden scores between families who stayed and those who left; resilience and socioeconomic factors were the distinguishing variables.