Impact of a psychoeducational intervention to improve caregiver knowledge and attitudes toward palliative cancer care.

Abstract

To evaluate the efficacy of a psychoeducational intervention in improving palliative care knowledge and attitudes among caregivers, patients' close friends and families. A total of 150 adult cancer caregivers participated in an online U.S.-based randomized clinical trial (RCT) between December 2021 and March 2022. Participants self-reported their baseline knowledge of palliative care, then viewed a psychoeducational video on palliative care (intervention condition) or nutrition (control condition). Participants then completed outcome measures of palliative care knowledge (aim 1; Palliative Care Knowledge Scale, PaCKS) and attitudes (aim 2; Palliative Care Attitudes Scale-9-Caregiver, PCAS-9C). Regression analyses examined whether group assignment significantly predicted palliative care knowledge and attitudes while controlling for self-reported baseline knowledge and key demographic and clinical characteristics. The PaCKS and PCAS-9C demonstrated excellent evidence of reliability, factor structure, and validity in this caregiver sample. The RCT succeeded on the primary outcome of increasing caregivers' palliative care knowledge (p < .001). Attitudes were favorable and did not differ between groups. This study demonstrates that a single-session, psychoeducational video can improve understanding of palliative care among close friends and families of those with cancer. This work suggests future pathways for helping families make informed decisions about initiating palliative care.