Recruitment, retention, and adherence of family caregivers: Lessons from a multisite trial.

This is a secondary analysis of process outcomes only. It reports nothing about whether the intervention worked for caregiver strain, well-being, or quality of life. No retention protocol was planned in advance, so it is unclear whether better design could have prevented the dropouts or whether the intervention format itself was unacceptable to caregivers. Caregiver satisfaction and perceived usefulness of the programme were never measured, so the reasons for non-adherence remain partly speculative. The sample was drawn from outpatient and oncology settings in two Latin American cities, which may limit generalisability to other healthcare systems or caregiver populations.

Funding was provided by the São Paulo Research Foundation (FAPESP). No author conflicts of interest are reported in the supplied text.

Do not read the low retention and adherence as proof that telephone psychoeducation is ineffective for caregivers. This paper reports only who stayed and who completed the calls. It contains no outcome data, so it cannot tell you whether the intervention reduced strain or improved quality of life for the caregivers who did receive it.