Safe Care and Medication Intake Provided by Caregivers at Home: Reality Care Study Protocol.

JUSTIFICATION: Providing care to patients with several conditions and simultaneously taking several medications at home is inexorably growing in developed countries. This trend increases the chances of home caregivers experiencing diverse errors related with medication or care. OBJECTIVE: To determine the effectiveness of four different educational solutions compared to the natural intervention (absence of intervention) to provide a safer care at home by caregivers. METHOD: Prospective, parallel, and mixed research study with two phases. Candidates: Home-based caregivers caring a person with multiple comorbid conditions or polymedication who falls into one of the three profiles of patients defined for the study (oncology, cardiovascular, or pluripathological patients). First phase: Experts first answered an online survey, and then joined together to discuss the design and plan the content of educational solutions directed to caregivers including the identification of medication and home care errors, their causes, consequences, and risk factors. Second phase: The true experiment was performed using an inter- and intrasubject single-factor experimental design (five groups: four experimental groups against the natural intervention (control), with pre- and post-intervention and follow-up measures) with a simple random assignment, to determine the most effective educational solution (n = 350 participants). The participants will be trained on the educational solutions through 360 V, VR, web-based information, or psychoeducation. A group of professionals called the "Gold Standard" will be used to set a performance threshold for the caring or medication activities. The study will be carried out in primary care centers, hospitals, and caregivers' associations in the Valencian Community, Andalusia, Madrid, and Murcia. EXPECTED RESULTS: We expect to identify critical elements of risk management at home for caregivers and to find the most effective and optimal educational solution to reduce errors at home, increasing caregivers' motivation and self-efficacy whilst the impact of gender bias in this activity is reduced. TRIAL REGISTRATION: Clinical Trial NCT05885334.

Design and validation of an adherence scale to oral antineoplastic drugs. / Diseño y validación de una escala de adherencia a antineoplásicos orales.

OBJECTIVE: To design and validate a questionnaire to measure adherence to oral antineoplastic drugs. The availability of a simple, validated tool that can be applied to routine care will make it possible to detect and identify non-adherence in order to establish strategies to improve adherence and optimize the quality of healthcare services. METHOD: Validation study of the questionnaire designed to assess adherence to antineoplastic drugs in a sample of outpatients who collect their medication in two Spanish hospitals. Its validity and reliability will be analyzed, based on a previous qualitative methodology study, using classical test theory and Rasch analysis. We will examine its performance, item fit, response structure and person fit to the predictions of the model, as well as dimensionality, item-person reliability, the appropriateness of the level of difficulty of the items to the sample, and the differential performance of the items according to gender.

[Translated article] Design and validation of a scale to measure adherence to oral antineoplastic drugs.

OBJECTIVE: Design and validate a scale to measure adherence to oral antineoplastic drugs. The availability of a simple, validated tool that can be applied to routine care will make it possible to detect and identify non-adherence in order to establish strategies to improve adherence and optimize the quality of healthcare services. METHOD: Validation study of the scale designed to assess adherence to antineoplastic drugs in a sample of outpatients who collect their medication in two Spanish hospitals. Its validity and reliability will be analyzed, based on a previous qualitative methodology study, using classical test theory and Rasch analysis. We will examine its performance, item fit, response structure and person fit to the predictions of the model, as well as dimensionality, item-person reliability, the appropriateness of the level of difficulty of the items to the sample, and the differential performance of the items according to gender.