SBIR/STTR Award attributes
Project SummaryThe main cause of behavioral symptoms in patients with Alzheimerandapos s diseaseADis the deterioration of brain cells which causes a decline in the individualandapos s ability to make sense of the worldCoping with such difficult behaviors is challenging for many caregiversand it is associated with many distressful situationsDespite current knowledge of adverse effects of dementia on familiesdementia caregivers remain the hidden patients with high incidence of stressand depressionThe physical and emotional impact of dementia caregiving is estimated to $billion in health care costs in the United StatesIn separate studieshospitalization and emergency department visits were more likely for dementia caregivers who helped care recipients who were depressedhad low functional statusor had behavioral disturbancesThe stress of dementia caregiving is influenced by several factorssuch as severity of dementia symptomshow challenging distressful situations are perceived by caregiversand available resourcesAlthough information and programs about dementia are available to the publican essential missing tool is how to deal with difficult behaviors of dementia patients in an effective manneras they are very common and demandingThis Phase II project will complete the development of the Virtual Patient Behavioral ResponseVPBRtraining to improve skills on how to respond to dementia behavioral problems and enhance caregiver copingThis training is implemented in a mobile appCaring Response AppCRAThe expected benefits include improved psychological health in caregivers and reduced stress related to behavioral disturbances of AD patientsKey innovations consist ofintegration of virtual patient techniques in a mobile app for dementia caregiversanonymous sharing of real responses and techniques used by caregivers in day to day situationsandautomated content update to users through an advancedcrowdsourcingof caregiving knowledgeafter beingcuratedby project personnelto promote best practices that caregivers found helpfulPhase I demonstrated the feasibility and met all milestonesResults showed that caregivers were prepared to use the mobile app and it actually reduced their psychological stressIn factbesides demonstrating usabilityacceptance and perceived benefitsPhase I study showed significant positive outcomes for caregivers on reducing their stressdepressive symptomsand burden of care due to patientsproblem behaviorsIn Phase IIwe will finalize the VPBR curriculumdevelop the complete appand evaluate its effectiveness in a randomized clinical trialresulting in a novel intervention that integrates virtual patient behavioral responseaggregation of community shared experienceeffective training on difficult dementia behaviorsand a mobile app to be deployed to millions of families struggling with Alzheimer sCommercial OpportunityVPBR training will be available to dementia caregiversMillion people in USas a mobile app subscriptionThis model has been very successful with our current mobile apps in App Stores Public Health Relevance A growing number of dementia family caregiversmillion in USare at high risk for depressive symptoms and syndromes related to the stress and difficulties of caregiving for individuals with AlzheimerDiseaseADand related dementiaBehavioral and psychological symptoms in dementia are the principal sources of stress in caregiverswhich may lead to declines in overall caregiverandapos s health and increased risk for developing chronic conditionsthereforewe propose a new training to prepare family caregiversimprove caregiver skills on how to respond to behavioral problemsand teach how to manage stressful and difficult behaviors of dementia patientsAfter Phase II is completedthe expected outcomes of our project are the followingreduce caregiver psychological stressalleviate depressive symptomsdecrease burden of careand enhance quality of lifein additionwe expect the following potential indirect outcomesnot measured by this studydelay institutionalization of dementia patientsreduce caregiver medicationand thereby decrease economic costs
