When both patient and caregiver met the inclusion criteria and agreed to participate, written informed consent was obtained from each of them. Participants were given the option to complete the questionnaire either alone or by interview (via tele- phone or in person). If patients and caregivers chose to complete the questionnaire by themselves at home, they were instructed to do so without dis- cussing it with each other. A stamped addressed envelope was provided for return of the completed questionnaire. On average, completion of the ques- tionnaire took 10 minutes for patients and 45 min- utes for family caregivers because more data were collected from caregivers than from patients. Clinical data on patients with heart failure were collected from medical records at the clinics from which the patients were recruited. Measurements …show more content…
6 433 Caregivers’ perceived control over the heart disease of their family member was measured. The impact of caregiving on caregivers’ lives was also measured. indicating greater perceived control. Although no psychometric information is available for the family version, the psychometric properties of the revised Control Attitudes Scale were reported to be satisfac- tory in patients with cardiac disease.22 Impact of Caregiving. The impact of caregiving on caregivers’ lives was measured by using the Care- giver Reaction Assessment (CRA).3 The CRA is one of the few instruments that can be used to measure both positive and negative aspects of the caregiving experience.24 It consists of 24 items, each of which is answered on a 5- point Likert scale, ranging from 1 (strongly disagree) to 5 (strongly agree). The items are categorized into 5 subscales: lack of family support, impact on finances, impact on sched- ule, impact on health, and caregiver esteem. The score on the caregiver esteem subscale is a measure of a positive aspect of