# Improving Self-Care of Informal Caregivers of Adults with Heart Failure

> **NIH NIH R01** · UNIVERSITY OF PENNSYLVANIA · 2022 · $601,583

## Abstract

Informal caregiving is demanding and stressful. This stress may exceed the caregiver's ability to adapt, and
many eventually become care recipients themselves as years of stress and deferred self-care put them at
increased risk for illness. Self-care refers to the behaviors undertaken to maintain health and manage illness.
Engaging in self-care may improve health status, defined as physical functioning and mental well-being.
Caregivers of adults with heart failure (HF) are an understudied group. HF is extremely common. Most HF
patients remain in the community through the end of their lives, depending on informal caregivers to assist
them. The trajectory of illness in HF is highly variable, which limits the use of palliative care and respite
services. As a consequence, HF caregivers report significant stress and poor self-care. Health coaching, a
support intervention, can improve self-care in patients, but studies evaluating HF caregivers are limited, as are
studies of the cost-effectiveness of support interventions for caregivers. Even less is known about the effect of
caregiver support interventions on HF patient outcomes. Caregiving duties often confine caregivers to the
home and many are unable to attend in-person sessions, so we have developed and pilot tested a virtual
support intervention (ViCCY [“Vicky”] – Virtual Caregiver Coach for You), that we propose to evaluate among
HF caregivers. Using a randomized controlled trial (RCT) design, we will enroll informal HF caregivers with
poor self-care (Health Self-Care Neglect scale score ≥2), randomizing them 1:1 to an intervention or control
group. Both groups will receive standard care augmented with Health Information (HI) delivered through the
Internet, but the ViCCY caregiver group will also receive 10 front-loaded coaching support sessions tailored to
individual issues. The control group will have access to the same HI resources over the same interval, using
the same Internet program, but without coaching support. At baseline and 3, 6, 9, and 12 months, we will
collect self-reported data on self-care, stress, coping, and health status. At 6 months, we will compare ViCCY
to HI alone to assess intervention efficacy using intent-to-treat analysis. Our pilot data suggest that addition of
support provided by the health coach will make ViCCY more efficacious than HI alone. A sample of 250
caregivers (125/arm) will provide >90% power to detect significant differences between the groups on the
primary outcome of self-care (Aim 1). We will collect quality adjusted life years (QALYs) and health care
resource use in caregivers over 12 months to assess cost-effectiveness of ViCCY (Aim 2). To explore the effect
of caregiver outcomes on HF patients' outcomes (hospitalization rates, hospital days, mortality rates, QALYs)
over a 12-month period (Aim 3) and knowing that not all HF patients will participate, we will consent a
subgroup of the HF patients cared for by these caregivers (at least 40 dyads). If s...

## Key facts

- **NIH application ID:** 10304157
- **Project number:** 5R01NR018196-04
- **Recipient organization:** UNIVERSITY OF PENNSYLVANIA
- **Principal Investigator:** BARBARA J RIEGEL
- **Activity code:** R01 (R01, R21, SBIR, etc.)
- **Funding institute:** NIH
- **Fiscal year:** 2022
- **Award amount:** $601,583
- **Award type:** 5
- **Project period:** 2019-01-23 → 2023-11-30

## Primary source

NIH RePORTER: https://reporter.nih.gov/project-details/10304157

## Citation

> US National Institutes of Health, RePORTER application 10304157, Improving Self-Care of Informal Caregivers of Adults with Heart Failure (5R01NR018196-04). Retrieved via AI Analytics 2026-06-11 from https://api.ai-analytics.org/grant/nih/10304157. Licensed CC0.

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