Limitations
brain cancer, depression, anxiety
BRAIN CANCER, RECRUITMENT
Our RCT was limited by only including English speaking carers living in Australia. There was a substantial drop-out across both arms in the trial, highlighting the challenges of longitudinal research in this population. Exploration of missing data via sensitivity analyses indicated if participants in the intervention group who dropped out at the 4-month time point reported worse preparedness for caregiving by 0.80 points compared to those who dropped out of the control group, the identified difference in preparedness for caregiving between groups would be non-significant. However, we have no reason to believe those who dropped out of the intervention group would be different to those who dropped out of the control group. Another potential factor may be the usual care provided at the recruitment sites, most of which had dedicated specialist brain cancer nurses on-site within tertiary care settings. Conceivably, this care had already maximized any changes in quality of life, anxiety, depression or caregiver strain which were able to be improved through nursing support, with more intensive nursing intervention unable to achieve additional gains.