Cultural adaptation of a mobile caregiver intervention application for Hispanic caregivers of persons with dementia (PWD)

Abstract

AbstractBackgroundFamily caregivers for persons with dementia (PWD) in the U.S. who identify as part of a racial or ethnic minority group experience higher levels of depression, receive less support from home and community‐based services, and often cannot access services in their primary language. The Alzheimer’s Association has recommended that proven interventions be adapted to address the needs of informal caregivers from different racial and ethnic backgrounds. Although several clinical interventions have been developed with promising results to improve the overall caregiving experience of PWD, the effectiveness of current interventions for Hispanic caregivers of PWD are unclear. Mobile, technology‐based interventions may address specific needs of Hispanic caregivers of PWD such as providing at home access to culturally tailored interventions, but current mobile caregiver interventions do not sufficiently consider equity factors. In the current study, we will culturally adapt an existing, validated, mobile caregiving intervention app for Hispanic caregivers of PWD using an equity focused framework.MethodBrain CareNotes was guided by the NIH Stage Model for Behavioral Intervention Development and is a secure mobile telehealth application for informal caregivers to manage behavioral and psychological symptoms of dementia (BPSD) with the aid of a remote care coach. To culturally adapt this intervention, we will addresses stage 0 – 1 of the NIH Stage Model and apply a previously developed equity framework, PROGRESS‐Plus, which identifies specific cultural factors (i.e. Place of Residence, Race/ethnicity, etc) that should be considered in the development of equity focused interventions. We will qualitatively identify specific PROGRESS‐Plus needs that are insufficiently met among Hispanic caregivers of PWD through semi‐structured interviews. We will incorporate this information in the modification of Brain CareNotes, which will be made using a participatory co‐design methodology. Two groups of n = 5 Hispanic English and Spanish speaking caregivers of PWD will participate in five co‐design sessions to adapt the intervention to meet identified PROGRESS‐plus related needs. The adapted intervention will then be pilot tested.ResultDescription of this ongoing study will be presented.ConclusionThis will result in an extensible framework for modifying and culturally tailoring other previously developed caregiver interventions for ethnic minority groups.