Communication and Hospice Online With Optimal Support and Engagement (CHOOSE)

The Washington University

Status: Begins enrollment in 4 months

Conditions: Cancer Caregivers; Family Caregivers; Caregivers

Treatments: Other: Online Support Group with trained facilitator; Other: Online Support Group with untrained facilitator; Other: Intermittent Hospice Team Support

Study type: Interventional

Funder types: Other; NIH

Identifiers

NCT07764432

202606091

1R01CA315474-01 (U.S. NIH Grant/Contract)

Details and patient eligibility

About

The project is a multisite, three-group randomized control trial (RCT) with equal and parallel mixed-methods analysis that allows standardized measures combined with rich qualitative data to test hypotheses and answer research questions. Family caregivers (FCGs) of hospice cancer patients will be recruited and randomized into one of three groups: usual hospice care only (UC), usual care online support group (UCOSG) (without communication strategies), and the CHOOSE intervention group (with communication focus).

Enrollment: 567 estimated patients

Sex: All

Ages: 18+ years old

Volunteers: Accepts Healthy Volunteers

Inclusion and exclusion criteria

Eligibility Criteria:

• Family caregiver of cancer patient receiving hospice care from an affiliated hospice organization. Only 1 FCG per patient may be enrolled.
• At least 18 years of age.
• Can speak and understand English.
• Able to access the internet.
• Has a Facebook account or is willing to create a Facebook account in order to be in this study

Trial design

Primary purpose: Health Services Research

Allocation: Randomized

Interventional model: Parallel Assignment

Masking: None (Open label)

---

567 participants in 3 patient groups

Usual Care (UC)

Active Comparator group

Description:

Patients randomized to the UC arm will receive the standard of care of intermittent hospice team support.

Treatment:

Other: Intermittent Hospice Team Support

Usual Care Online Social Support (UCOSG)

Active Comparator group

Description:

Patients randomized to the UCOSG arm will have access to an online support group in addition to the standard of care of intermittent hospice team support. The online support group is led by an untrained facilitator.

Treatment:

Other: Intermittent Hospice Team Support

Other: Online Support Group with untrained facilitator

CHOOSE Intervention

Experimental group

Description:

Patients randomized to the CHOOSE intervention will have access to standard of care of intermittent hospice team support and access to an online support group led by a trained facilitator.

Treatment:

Other: Intermittent Hospice Team Support

Other: Online Support Group with trained facilitator