Improving Dementia Care at Home and Reducing Burden for Family Caregivers

描述（由申请人提供）：阿尔茨海默病和相关疾病（ADRD）联合收割机形成了21世纪世纪美国老龄化人口面临的最紧迫的医疗保健挑战之一。截至2008年，估计有520万各年龄段的美国人患有阿尔茨海默病。近75%的ADRD患者的护理是在家中提供的。痴呆症患者的护理人员表示需要持续的、全面的、可获得的教育支持，以帮助管理复杂的生活困难网络对身心的影响。不幸的是，对于这些照顾者来说，家庭照顾者通常要求获得患者教育或护理支持的初级保健医生和其他卫生专业人员往往缺乏充分应对照顾者的ADRD相关需求的准备或时间。目的：通过使用一种创新的、基于互联网的、互动的心理教育计划，来减轻照顾者的负担，并延长对照顾者角色的满意度。研究方法：充分利用互联网的媒体功能（流视频，音频，动画，照片，图形和运动）及其处理和响应用户输入的能力，开发和测试一个引人入胜的信息课程。家庭护理人员可以方便地24/7私人访问整个ADRD“干预顾问”团队，他们表现出成功的痴呆症护理人员，ADRD知识专家，心理社会支持专家，悲伤和损失顾问，私人教练和友好的顾问。研究与评价：第一阶段的工作旨在评估程序的可用性，验证程序的内容材料，并确定第二阶段工作的可行性。该计划的设计将纳入一个迭代过程，其中包括专家顾问团队和家庭护理人员的反馈。家庭护理参与者将完成知识的前测试和后测试;关于技术困难和对原型的反应的定性开放式问卷;以及定量的5分Likert量表评估，以帮助确定可行性。大量家庭照顾者的教育需求导致了强大的商业潜力。此外，拟议的干预产品也可能有利于公众在社区教育，医疗办公室，卫生保健机构，和工作场所的设置。公共卫生相关性：据估计，2008年有520万美国人患有阿尔茨海默病和相关疾病（ADRD），到2030年，65岁及以上的人数估计将达到770万。阿尔茨海默氏症协会的专家估计，2005年美国正式的ADRD护理费用每年超过1480亿美元。由于心理教育干预措施已被发现，以减轻负担和压力，是一个照顾者和延迟养老院安置，预计这一努力将导致家庭ADRD照顾者的技能，减少照顾者的负担，并延长满意度的照顾者的角色，使照顾者能够更好地和更愿意继续家庭照顾那些与ADRD。

DESCRIPTION (provided by applicant): Alzheimer's Disease and related disorders (ADRD) combine to form one of the most urgent healthcare challenges facing the aging population of 21st Century America. As of 2008, an estimated 5.2 million Americans of all ages have Alzheimer's disease. Nearly 75% of the care for persons with ADRD is delivered at home. Caregivers of persons with dementia express a need for ongoing, comprehensive, accessible educational support to help manage the physical and psychological effects of an intricate web of caregiving hardships. Unfortunately for these caregivers, primary care physicians and other health professionals, whom family caregivers typically call upon for access to patient education or care support, often lack either the preparation or the time to adequately respond to caregivers' ADRD-related needs. Objective: to achieve a reduction in caregiver burden and prolonged satisfaction with the caregiving role by using an innovative, Internet-based, interactive psychoeducational program that exceeds existing methods of caregiver education alone. Methods: develop and test an engaging informative curriculum taking full advantage of the media capabilities of the Internet (streaming video, audio, animation, photo, graphics, and movement) as well as its ability to process and respond to input by the user. Family caregivers gain convenient, 24/7, private access to a whole team of ADRD "intervention consultants" shown fulfilling the role of a successful dementia caregiver, ADRD knowledge experts, psychosocial support specialists, grief and loss counselors, personal coaches, and friendly advisors. Research and Evaluation: The Phase I effort seeks to evaluate the usability of the program, validate the content material of the program, and determine feasibility for a Phase II effort. The design of will incorporate an iterative process involving feedback from an expert consultant team and family caregivers. Family caregiver participants will complete a pre- and post-test of knowledge; a qualitative, open-ended questionnaire regarding technical difficulties and reaction to the prototype; and a quantitative, 5-point Likert-scale evaluation to help determine feasibility. The educational need of this large number of family caregivers results in a strong commercial potential. In addition, the proposed intervention product may also benefit the general public in terms of community-education, medical-office, healthcare-agency, and workplace settings. PUBLIC HEALTH RELEVANCE: An estimated 5.2 million Americans of all ages have Alzheimer's Disease and Related Disorders (ADRD) in 2008, and the number of people age 65 and over is estimated to reach 7.7 million by 2030. Alzheimer's Association experts estimated the 2005 U.S. cost of formal ADRD care at more than $148 billion annually. Because psychoeducational interventions have been found to mitigate the burden and stress of being a caregiver and delay nursing home placement, it is anticipated that this effort will result in an improvement of family ADRD caregiver skills, a reduction in caregiver burden, and prolonged satisfaction with the caregiving role so that caregivers are better able and more willing to continue home care of those with ADRD.