Effect of online psychoeducational support on caring burden in family caregivers of COVID-19 patients: a parallel randomized controlled trial

Background
The COVID-19 pandemic has imposed a psychological burden on a wide range of people in the community, including COVID-19 patients and their family caregivers.

Objectives
This study aimed to evaluate the effect of online psychoeducational support on the caring burden in family caregivers of individuals with COVID-19.

Material and methods
This study was conducted on 70 family caregivers of patients with COVID-19 referred to Imam Reza Hospital in Mashhad, Iran in 2021 by using a convenience sampling method. The participants were randomly assigned to intervention and control groups. The intervention group received one week of online psychoeducational support in six online group sessions of 35 to 45 minutes. Data were collected using the Zarit Burden questionnaire at the beginning and one week after the intervention. The data were analyzed using descriptive and inferential statistics (Independent t-Test, Chi-squared test, Fisher's exact test, Mann–Whitney U test, Wilcoxon, and Paired t-Test).

Results
At the baseline, the level of caring burden in the two groups was moderate and no significant difference was observed between the groups (p = 0.28). The total mean scores of caring burden before and after the intervention in the support group were 50.2 ± 10.5 and 46.0 ± 9.2, respectively, which significantly decreased after the intervention (p < 0.001). Consequently, the decrease in the burden mean score was significantly greater in the support group than in the control group (p = 0.04).

Conclusions
It is recommended to implement online psychoeducational support for the caregivers of patients with COVID-19 to reduce their caring burden.