Abstract

BACKGROUND: Family caregivers of ICU patients experience difficulty communicating with patients during mechanical ventilation. Little is known about patient-family communication in the ICU and the associated emotional distress. OBJECTIVES: To examine the preliminary effects of the VidaTalk™ communication app on anxiety, depression, and PTSD-related symptoms among family caregivers. METHODS: We conducted a prospective study using repeated measures to compare VidaTalk™ to an attention control condition. Twenty-eight family caregivers of nonvocal adult ICU patients participated in this study. The intervention group received VidaTalk™, whereas the attention control group received a standard tablet loaded with MyChart Bedside (EPIC) and game apps during the patient's mechanical ventilation treatment. Family caregiver anxiety and depression (Hospital Anxiety and Depression Scale) were measured at baseline, at extubation/ICU discharge, and 1-, 3-, and 6-months post-ICU discharge. PTSD-related symptoms (Impact of Event Scale-revised) were measured at 1-, 3-, and 6-months. T-tests were used for group comparisons for families' perceived communication difficulty, anxiety, and depression, and Mann-Whitney U tests were used for PTSD-related symptom comparisons. RESULTS: No statistically significant difference was found between groups in changes in family psychological outcomes, the VidaTalk™ was associated with a small to medium improvement in anxiety symptoms (d = 0.43) at one month. The VidaTalk™ group had lower PTSD-related symptoms than the AC group with a medium effect size (ɳ2=0.07) at one month and a medium-to-large effect size (ɳ2=0.09) at three months. CONCLUSIONS: The VidaTalk™ demonstrated potential as a family caregiving intervention that may be associated with reduced family psychological symptoms.