Abstract Purpose: Family caregivers experience distress when their loved one is in the ICU, particularly in the setting of delirium. Limited English proficiency (LEP) may worsen this experience and contribute to long-term psychological burden. Yet caregivers with LEP are rarely included in ICU research. Whether caregiver engagement using linguistically tailored delirium assessments improves satisfaction remains unknown. Methods: We conducted a prospective cohort study of patient-caregiver dyads in two academic ICUs. Caregivers were assigned to: 1) FAM-CAM group, in which caregivers completed daily FAM-CAM delirium assessments, or 2) control group with no FAM-CAM exposure. All caregivers completed the Family Satisfaction in the ICU-24 (FS-ICU-24) after 3 days. Outcomes included overall satisfaction and subdomains of decision-making and care (0–100 scale). Independent t-tests compared satisfaction by language, FAM-CAM exposure, and patient delirium status. Results: Among 120 dyads, 63 caregivers preferred English and 57 Spanish. English-speaking caregivers reported higher decision-making satisfaction than Spanish-speakers (90.8 vs 85.6, p < 0.05). FAM-CAM exposure improved overall satisfaction across language groups (91.9 vs 84.4, p < 0.01). Patient delirium was linked to lower caregiver satisfaction, but FAM-CAM engagement mitigated this effect, with higher scores among exposed caregivers(90.9 vs 80.3, p < 0.05). Conclusions: English-speaking caregivers reported higher satisfaction scores than Spanish-speaking caregivers. Engagement with FAM-CAM improved satisfaction across language groups and mitigated the negative impact of delirium, supporting its potential to enhance caregiver engagement and promote equity in the ICU.
Ellberg et al. (Fri,) studied this question.