UTMB Clinical and Translational Science Award

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Abstract More than 34 million individuals in the USA provide unpaid care for someone over the age of 50. The majority are women and 50% provide care to persons with dementia (PwD). Hispanic caregivers differ in important ways from Non-Hispanic caregivers. The caregiver role is a cultural expectation among Hispanics and caregiving by the family is preferred over professional caregiving. However, we know little about how the unique traits and resources of Hispanics affect their well-being when they assume a caregiving role. This Diversity supplement will support a Hispanic clinician-scientist and help him become independent. It will provide training in mixed methods to translate findings from population-based data linked to health-care claims into interventions to improve the well-being of Hispanics with dementia and their caregivers. The approach is to focus on couples in which a spouse provides care to their partner with dementia. The proposed program targets 4 areas of training to help the candidate develop an independent clinical and research career focused on the well-being of Hispanic dementia caregivers: Combining sources of data to identify factors that affect outcomes among Hispanic caregivers; Acquiring new methodological skills to explore change over time; Disseminating and implementing research findings on Hispanic caregivers in healthcare systems; and Career advancement and leadership development. The specific aims for the Diversity supplement research component are: 1) Analyze wellbeing and healthcare use of Hispanics caring for a spouse with dementia. 2) Explore Hispanic dementia caregivers' needs in the candidate's University healthcare system using semi- structured interviews. Aim 1 will use the Health and Retirement Study data linked to Medicare for 2010-2018. Aim 2 will consist of semi-structured interviews of Hispanic caregivers. Completing these specific aims and training activities will make the candidate competent in: statistical and analytical skills to study the outcomes related to caregiving among Hispanics with survey data and healthcare claims; and qualitative methodologies to understand the challenges of Hispanic caregivers and design interventions to improve their well-being. The development program includes working with a group of experts in the areas of Hispanic cognition and health disparities, training in the use of Medicare claims data, learning new biostatistical methodologies, developing expertise in the challenges of dementia caregiving, couples' models and translational research. The expected outcomes are a rigorous mixed-methods study of Hispanic dementia caregivers and development of an independent research program. Data from the research project and skills obtained through the mentored program will lead to an application for an NIA R01 that will implement and evaluate interventions to improve outcomes of Hispanics with dementia and their family caregivers.