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Caregiving Study

The goal of our Caregiving Study is to understand how caregivers manage the demands of caring for a loved one with a long-term health condition and how social relationships affect caregivers' ability to cope.

Overview

Taking care of a loved one with a long-term health condition can be stressful. Over time, the demands of caregiving can have harmful effects on caregivers’ health and well-being. Our Caregiving Study explores the impact of caregiver stress over time and how social relationships affect their ability to cope with caregiving demands.

The Caregiving Study focuses on the following diagnoses:

  • Inborn errors of metabolism
  • Mitochondrial disorders
  • CLN3 Batten disease
  • Undiagnosed diseases
  • Other diagnoses
     

To learn more, please visit clinicaltrials.gov or email CaregivingStudy@mail.nih.gov.

Publications

Zajdel M, Davidson H, Lea D, Koehly LM. (2022). Links of we-talk to caregiver social network systems and health. Journal of Family Psychology. Advance online publication. DOI: https://doi.org/10.1037/fam0001013

Bush L, Davidson H, Gelles S, Lea D, Koehly LM. Experiences of Families Caring for Children with Newborn Screening-Related Conditions: Implications for the Expansion of Genomics in Population-Based Neonatal Public Health Programs. Int J Neonatal Screen, 2022 May 23;8(2):35. DOI: https://doi.org/10.3390/ijns8020035.

Manalel J, Sumrall S, Davidson H, Grewal M, Granovetter M, Koehly LM. Stress, coping, and positive aspects of caregiving among caregivers of children with rare disease. Psychology & Health, 2022. 

Lea D, Shchelochkov O, Cleary J, Koehly LM. Dietary management of Propionic Acidemia: family caregiver perspectives and practices. Journal of Parenteral and Enteral Nutrition. 43(3): 434-437, 2019.

Granovetter MA, Sumrall S, Lea D, Gelles S, Koehly LM. Parent-reported caregiving roles of siblings of children with inborn errors of metabolism. The Journal of Developmental & Behavioral Pediatrics. In press. 2022.

Last updated: June 30, 2022