Clinical trial · Interventional
An Individualized Grief Intervention for Spouses of Cancer Patients After the Patient's Death
Enhancing End-of-Life and Bereavement Outcomes Among Cancer Caregivers: Individualized Dual Process Intervention for Bereaved Partners After Cancer Death
- Source
- ClinicalTrials.gov
- Retrieved
- Sep 8, 2026
- Layer
- normalized (units and labels harmonized; values unchanged)
- Run
- ING-CLINICALTRIALS-20260908-000001
Summary
Brief summary (as posted)
Individuals providing end-of-life caregiving to partners with terminal cancer often begin the bereavement process before the patient dies and with additional sources of stress. We know that grief for these partners can be long-term and impact virtually every aspect of their lives. This project will test the effectiveness of a new promising intervention that uses a dual process model (DPM) which focuses both on loss orientation (emotional loss and grief (referred to as LO)) and restoration orientation (learning new tasks of living that may have been the primary responsibility of the spouse who has died (referred to as RO tasks)).
Conditions
Conditions (3)
Free-text conditions as registered, with the CancerIndex entity they were reconciled to and the match type.
| Condition (as posted) | Mapped entity | Match | Confidence |
|---|---|---|---|
| Bereavement | — | UNRESOLVED | — |
| Cancer | Malignant Neoplasm | ALIAS | 0.90 |
| Death | — | UNRESOLVED | — |
Interventions
Interventions (1)
| Intervention | Type | Mapped drug | Match |
|---|---|---|---|
| Individualized DPM | Behavioral | — | UNRESOLVED |
Design
Arms and outcomes
Arms (2)
- type
- NO_INTERVENTION
- label
- Usual Care
- description
- Usual care participants do not receive an intervention.
- type
- EXPERIMENTAL
- label
- Individualized DPM
- description
- Individualized DPM
- interventionNames
- Behavioral: Individualized DPM
Primary outcomes (1)
- measure
- DPM Coping Processes: Loss- and Restoration- Orientation and Oscillation
- timeFrame
- up to 14 months post patient death
- description
- Features of the DPM will be measured using the Inventory of Daily Widowed Life (IDWL) which consists of 22 Likert-format items that inquire into how much time during the past week the respondents spend on loss-orientation (e.g., "Thinking about how much I miss my spouse;" "Feeling a bond with my spouse") and restoration-oriented activities (e. g., "Finding ways to keep busy or occupied;" "Took some time away from grieving for my spouse"). At the end of the 22 IDWL items are several additional questions we developed to measure important dimensions of the oscillation between LO and RO. These features assess oscillation awareness, frequency, and control (each measured on a 5-point Likert scale) and oscillation intent is measured by an open-ended item that asks, "When I go back and forth between dealing with these two issues (grief-related emotions vs. new responsibilities, activities and time away from grieving), I usually do it because \_\_.
Eligibility
Eligibility (as posted)
- Sex
- All
- Minimum age
- 45 Years
Show eligibility criteria text
Inclusion Criteria: * Spouse/Partner of patient with a cancer diagnosis who received hospice care in their home by one of the participating hospice programs * Lived in the home with the patient * English speaking and writing * cognitively and physically able to use the phone unassisted, complete questionnaires, and participate in the DPM intervention * Access to a telephone * Intends to reside in an area where the intervention will be offered for the time it takes to deliver the intervention (14 weeks from the start of the intervention). No Exclusion Criteria:
References
Publications (0)
Data not yet available