Outlook Quality of Life Intervention

VA Office of Research and Development

Status: Completed

Conditions: Chronic Obstructive Pulmonary Disease; Cancer; Congestive Heart Failure

Treatments: Other: Attention Control; Other: Life completion and preparation

Study type: Interventional

Funder types: Other U.S. Federal agency

Identifiers

NCT00784095

IAD 07-162

Details and patient eligibility

About

The purpose of this study is to determine whether discussions of life story, forgiveness, and future goals improve quality of life for patients with serious illness.

Full description

This is a pilot randomized control trial to evaluate the feasibility of the Outlook intervention. 36 veterans with advanced cancer, congestive heart failure (CHF) or chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD) will be randomly assigned to one of three intervention groups and complete a brief battery of pre-test measures. Subjects in the first group ("treatment") will meet with a facilitator three times for a period of 45 min-1 hour. In the first session, subjects will be asked to discuss issues related to life review. In the second session, participants will be asked to speak in more depth about issues such as regret, forgiveness and things left undone, In the final session, subjects will focus on heritage and legacy. The subjects in the second group ("attention control") will meet with a facilitator three times for a period of 45 min- 1 hour and listen to a non-guided relaxation compact disk (CD). The third group of participants ("true control") will be exposed to no intervention or attention control. One week and two weeks later, participants in all groups will receive post-test measures administered by a blinded interviewer.

Enrollment: 36 patients

Sex: All

Ages: 18+ years old

Volunteers: No Healthy Volunteers

Inclusion criteria

Patients with advanced cancer, CHF or COPD.

Exclusion criteria

Cognitive impairment, inability to speak, non-English speaking

Trial design

36 participants in 3 patient groups

Preparation and Completion

Experimental group

Description:

Subjects in the first group ("treatment") met with the facilitator three times for a period of forty-five minutes to one hour to discuss issues of life completion and preparation. In the first session, subjects were asked to discuss issues related to life review. In session two, participants spoke about issues of regret and forgiveness. In the final session, subjects discussed issues of heritage and legacy.

Treatment:

Other: Life completion and preparation

Attention Control

Active Comparator group

Description:

The subjects in the second group ("attention control") met with a facilitator three times for 45 minutes and listened to a non-guided relaxation CD.

Treatment:

Other: Attention Control

True Control

No Intervention group

Description:

Subjects in the third group ("true control") were exposed to no intervention or attention control.