TESTING THE EFFICACY OF THE CAREGIVER TLC - Program to Positively Impact the Caregiver’s Physical and Mental Health

Sep 28, 2026

Uploaded by McQueen

Providing care for a loved one with chronic health conditions or neurocognitive disorders such as dementia is demanding and can negatively affect caregivers’ physical and mental health. This study evaluates the short-term efficacy of the online Caregiver TLC psychoeducational program using SF-12 quality-of-life outcomes. A randomized controlled trial (N=78) with pre-post data and two-way repeated-measures ANOVA assessed changes across overall health, physical health, and mental health. Intervention caregivers showed small-to-medium improvements versus controls, suggesting added benefits beyond coping mechanisms.

LanguageEnglish

CategoryHealthcare

FormatPDF

Pages1

Reading Time3 min

AccessFree to download

Study overview

Participants and design

Measures and analysis

Results and implications

Innovation in Aging, 2025, Vol. 9, No. S2 783 Abstract citation ID: igaf122.2658 TESTING THE EFFICACY OF THE CAREGIVERTLC PROGRAM TO POSITIVELY IMPACT THE CAREGIV ER’S PHYSICAL AND MENTAL HEALTH Julian Montoro-Rodriguez1, Charlie Reeve1, Dolores Gallagher-Thompson2, Ann Bilbrey3, Jennifer Ramsey4, and Bruno Kajiyama5, 1. The University of North Carolina at Charlotte, Charlotte, North Carolina, United States, 2. Stanford University, Stanford, California, United States, 3. Optimal Aging Center, Sunnyvale, California, United States, 4. York Technical College, Rock Hill, South Carolina, United States, 5. Photozig, Inc., Moffett Field, California, United States Providing care for a loved-one with a chronic health condition or significant neurocognitive disorders, such as dementia, is a demanding job. The demands of this job can often have an impact on these caregivers’ own physical and mental health. In this study, we examine the short-term efficacy of the Caregiver TLC psychoeducational program to attenuate this negative impact on caregivers’ self-reported general, physical and mental health as assessed by the SF-12 quality of life health survey. The Caregiver TLC is a skill-building program designed to improve caregiver internal and external coping mechanisms, delivered online to a small group of caregivers over six-weekly two-hour sessions (Montoro-Rodriguez et al., 2024; 2025). Using pre-post data from a randomized controlled trial (N = 78), we conducted a two-way repeated measures ANOVA to test for differences in change in scores over time on each of the three measures of health from the SF-12. Results indicated small to medium effects, with caregivers in the intervention group reporting higher levels of improvement in scores for the 3 sub-scales of the SF-12: overall health, physical health and mental health-compared to those in the control condition. These results suggest that although the Caregiver TLC programming is targeting caregiver coping mechanisms (e.g., building resilience, and increasing emotional support), caregivers gain additional benefits on more distal self-reported health outcomes. Our findings are consistent with previous empirical studies and systematic reviews of the effectiveness of psychoeducational interventions for caregivers that report significant improvement in a variety of health outcomes.

FAQs

What is the main goal of the Caregiver TLC program evaluated in this study?

To reduce the negative effects that caregiving can have on caregivers’ self-reported general, physical, and mental health by improving internal and external coping mechanisms.

How was the program tested in this research?

Using pre-post data from a randomized controlled trial (N=78), with a two-way repeated-measures ANOVA to examine score changes over time on SF-12 health measures.

What were the study’s key findings on health outcomes?

Caregivers in the intervention group reported small-to-medium improvements compared with the control group on SF-12 overall health, physical health, and mental health sub-scales.

Sep 28, 2026

Uploaded by McQueen