Key result
Multimedia education cuts caregiver stress ~43% and lowers burden vs routine care after heart attacks.
Why the study?
Elderly heart attack patients often require family caregiving in developing communities, but the effect of an educational program on caregiver perceived stress and care burden was unclear.
Does a multimedia education program reduce perceived stress and caregiving burden in family caregivers of elderly heart attack patients?
RCT (n=60)
Open-label
Simple random sampling
No
Does a multimedia education program reduce perceived stress and caregiving burden in family caregivers of elderly heart attack patients?
Mean Difference: 14.08
Absolute Event Rate: 19% vs 33.03%
p-value: p=<0.001
A brief multimedia educational intervention significantly reduces perceived stress and caregiving burden among family caregivers of elderly heart attack patients.
Brief multimedia education reduces stress and burden in family caregivers of elderly MI patients; supports routine post-discharge programs and larger implementation trials.
BACKGROUND: Supportive care has been found to improve quality of life and reduce the disease burden for aging individuals. After a heart attack, elderly patients often require a caregiver. In developing communities, caregiving responsibilities frequently fall on family members. Accordingly, we designed a randomized controlled clinical trial to assess the effect of an educational program on perceived stress and care burden among family caregivers of elderly heart attack patients. METHOD: In this clinical trial (IRCT20220905055894N1, 01/02/2023), family member caregivers were the study participants, assigned to either intervention or control groups using a simple random sampling method. The control group received only routine in-home caregiving information, without additional nurse training or support, whereas the intervention group received multimedia-based training, monitoring, and communication support from a trained nurse over one month. Perceived stress levels and caregiving burden were measured using the Perceived Stress Scale (PSS) and the Caregiving Burden Inventory, respectively. RESULTS: Before the intervention, a high level of caregiving stress (34.07 ± 8.61 in the control group vs. 34.17 ± 8.62 in the intervention group) and burden (77.7 ± 15.51 in the control group vs. 79 ± 15.6 in the intervention group) was observed. After one month of intervention, the average scores of stress and burden remained unchanged in the control group, whereas the intervention group showed a significant reduction (P < 0.001). The inter-group comparison revealed lower levels of stress and care burden in the intervention group (P < 0.001). CONCLUSION: A brief multimedia education intervention could help alleviate the stressful conditions experienced by family caregivers of elderly heart attack patients. Future studies could investigate whether a more extended educational program would have more lasting effects.
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Abbasi et al. (2025) conducted an RCT in Caregiver stress and burden in family caregivers of elderly heart attack patients (n=60). Multimedia-based educational program vs. Routine in-home caregiving information was evaluated on Perceived stress level (PSS score) (MD 14.08, p=<0.001). A multimedia educational program significantly reduced perceived stress (MD 14.08) and caregiving burden (MD 22.13) in family caregivers of elderly heart attack patients compared to routine care.
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