Technological Home Care: Improving HPN Care With Videophone And Internet Education

Prevention of Home Parenteral Nutrition (HPN) Infection, Depression and Improving Caregiving Problem Solving

The purpose of this study is to help people with home parenteral nutrition (HPN) to avoid infections and feelings of depression or fatigue and to test how their health and quality of life change over time. Another purpose is to test the nurse teaching sessions and the method of obtaining support from the peer partner through videophone.

Aim #1 Hypothesis

1. Dyad (patient-caregiver) participation in health care management and problem-solving method use with professionals will be greater in the experimental group than the control group
2. Dyad reactive depression will be lower in the experimental group than the control group
3. Dyad quality of life will be higher in the experimental group than the control group
4. Dyad health status scores will be higher and the dyad sleepiness scale will be lower in experimental group than the control group
5. Dyad Health Services Use will be lower in the experimental group than the control group
6. Catheter-related infections will be lower in the experimental than control patients

Aim #2 Hypotheses:

1. What is the cost of using the FamTechCare system compared to traditional care?
2. Is there a difference between efficiency scores of the experimental and control groups intervention, boosters and relative to dyads long-term health services use at 24 months?
3. What are the relationships among patient outcome variables and caregivers' rating of virtual nurse caring and caregiver adaption?
4. What are the relationships among use of FamTechCare, dyad participation in health care management scale score and dyad access to the Internet Weighted Score?

Inclusion Criteria:

• 18 years or older
• Caregivers of HPN patients short- or long-term HPN
• able to participate in writing and other intervention activities
• able to speak/read/write English or Spanish

Exclusion Criteria:

• Patients with psychiatric disorders (e.g., schizophrenia, hallucinations) and physical disabilities that prevent use of intervention