Trial results for a culturally-based palliative care tele-consult program for rural elders with life-limiting illnesses were posted on ClinicalTrials.gov on 2025-05-23, with 209 participants enrolled.
Background
Rural patients facing life-limiting illnesses often experience significant challenges in accessing appropriate care. These challenges stem from a scarcity of health professionals, long distances to specialized treatment centers, and limited local expertise in palliative care (PC). Furthermore, cultural factors profoundly influence how individuals respond to diagnoses, illnesses, and treatment preferences. Despite this, culturally-based care models are largely unavailable for many seriously-ill rural patients and their family caregivers. A lack of sensitivity to cultural differences can compromise the effectiveness and quality of palliative care, particularly for minority patient populations. This study aimed to address these gaps by comparing a culturally-based tele-consult program.
Trial design
This completed study, designated as Phase NA, enrolled 209 participants. The trial investigated a range of conditions including Cancer, Cardiac Disease, Pulmonary Disease, Neuro-Degenerative Disease, and Renal Disease. The intervention involved a culturally-based palliative care tele-consult program, which was compared against a usual care arm. The trial's brief summary indicates its purpose was to compare this cultural intervention.
Key results
The trial reported several key measurements related to patient symptom burden and caregiver satisfaction:
- Patient Symptom Burden (Edmonton Symptom Assessment Scale [ESAS]) (score on a scale):
- For the Active Intervention group, mean scores were 35.1 (Standard Error 0.9), 38.6 (Standard Error 0.9), and 40.5 (Standard Error 0.9).
- For the Usual Care group, mean scores were 34.6 (Standard Error 0.9), 38 (Standard Error 0.9), and 39.4 (Standard Error 0.9).
- The Mean Percentage of Caregivers Who Responded Very Satisfied/Satisfied to the Family Satisfaction With Care (FAMCARE-2) Survey (percentage of participants):
- For the Active Intervention group, reported percentages were 76.2, 23.8, and 85.7.
- For the Usual Care group, reported percentages were 78.6, 21.4, and 84.8.
What this means
The posted results provide specific mean scores for patient symptom burden as measured by the Edmonton Symptom Assessment Scale (ESAS) and percentages for caregiver satisfaction using the FAMCARE-2 survey. These measurements offer insight into the outcomes observed in both the active intervention and usual care groups within a culturally-based palliative care tele-consult program. The data highlights the reported values for these metrics among rural elders with life-limiting illnesses. No comparative analyses or statistical significance values were provided in the reported data.
Source
The information regarding these trial results was obtained from ClinicalTrials.gov, a public database of clinical studies. The results for the study NCT03767517, titled "A Culturally-Based Palliative Care Tele-consult Program for Rural Southern Elders", were posted on 2025-05-23 on clinicaltrials.gov.