HERL Caregiver Study Seeks Participants

• By Laurie Watanabe
• Oct 31, 2022

A research study conducted by the University of Pittsburgh is seeking participants to try out the Caregiver Assisted Transfer Technique Instrument (CATT).

The study, whose principal investigator is Alicia Koontz, Ph.D., focuses on the CATT “as a tool to assess proper technique of caregivers who provide transfer assistance to individuals with physical disabilities.”

Participants must be over 18 years old, must have routinely provided transfer assistance to an adult with a physical disability for at least two years, and must have served as a caregiver for at least three months.

The study requires up to four visits for caregivers and two visits for care recipients. Study participants have the option of making the visits remotely from their homes.

“For the first visit, you will be asked to complete surveys and perform routine transfers to be evaluated,” the call for participants said in the October 2022 edition of The HERL Quarterly. “For the second visit, you will be asked to perform the same transfer procedures as visit one. Visits three and for four caregivers involve completing an online assessment of their transfer skills.”

Care recipients can receive up to $50 for their participation; caregivers can receive up to $100 for participating and will also have the option of participating in the sensor portion of the study for an additional $50.

The CATT study is accepting participants through December 2022.