Abstract. She provided intellectual guidance for the entire project, developing agenda for the weekly phone calls and for the two stakeholder meetings. She developed the analytical framework for understanding risks in community-engaged research and played a major role in all of the drafts of the manuscripts. She provided content expertise in research ethics and human subjects protections. Mr. Loup was the research associate for this project and worked with Dr. Ross in the intellectual development of the three manuscripts. He also worked on multiple draft revisions, performed library searches, organized weekly conference calls for the writing group, and coordinated the two stakeholder meetings. Dr. Nelson was a key member of the writing group; attended both stakeholder meetings and many phone meetings; and commented, critiqued, and provided detailed constructive criticisms on numerous drafts. He provided content expertise in human subjects protection. The work reported in this article was conducted prior to Dr. Nelson joining the U.S. Food and Drug Administration, and do not represent the views and/or policies of the FDA or the Department of Health and Human Services. Dr. Botkin was a key member of the writing group; attended both stakeholder meetings and many phone meetings; and commented, critiqued, and provided detailed constructive criticisms on numerous drafts. Dr. Kost was a key member of the writing group; attended the initial stakeholder meeting and many phone meetings; commented, critiqued, and provided detailed constructive criticisms on numerous drafts; and provided content expertise in human subject protections and research subject advocacy. Mr. Smith was a key member of the writing group; attended both stakeholder meetings and many phone meetings; and commented, critiqued, and provided detailed constructive criticisms on numerous drafts. He provided content expertise on the role of community research partners and helped ensure that the manuscripts provided a balance between the needs of the academic research community and their community partners. Dr. Gehlert worked with Dr. Ross as a content expert in community-engaged research. Dr. Gehlert was instrumental in inviting a broad range of stakeholders and helped ensure that the manuscripts reflected current communityengaged research practice and policy.

In this sample, perceptions of the caregiving experience improved over 8 months. Health-related quality of life was moderately poor over the 8 months. Caregivers of patients with more severe HF symptoms may be particularly in need of interventions to reduce time and difficulty of caregiving tasks and improve physical health-related quality of life.