Protecting Alzheimer Caregivers Using Technology Through Staying Sharp

Significance: Approximately 16 million adults provide unpaid care to their loved ones with Alzheimer's disease and related disorders (ADRD). Among caregivers, 1 in 3 are older adults. For these caregivers, balancing their own health while caring for loved ones can be stressful, depressing, and feelings of hopelessness. This long-term distress can lead to higher risks of cardiovascular diseases, dementia, and mortality. Given the rise of incident dementia and caregiving, scalable interventions to support family caregivers are urgently needed. Intervention: Staying Sharp is an online brain health intervention for older adults available through AARP since 2018. Over 400,000 AARP members have registered for this online intervention. This multi-component intervention includes a package of assessments, brain games, and educational videos and articles to maintain 6-pillars healthy behaviors. Independent of Staying Sharp, over 39 million have visited AARP's online caregiving resource center. The large number of visits not only shows high demand for caregiver support, but reveals the potential of Staying Sharp to reach tens of thousands of caregivers at greater risk by their role for increased morbidity and mortality. Stage I/II user experience and efficacy study: While many users have registered for Staying Sharp, its efficacy has not been tested. Home-sensing technology is an ecologically valid way of testing the efficacy of health interventions. The Oregon Center of Aging \& Technology (ORCATECH) has established a home-based, technology-agnostic, unobtrusive platform for more than 15 years. With this platform, we will assess how Staying Sharp may maintain brain health and function as indicated by a suite of digital biomarkers (e.g., physical activity, sleep, dietary behaviors). Our ultimate goal is to refine Staying Sharp by examining user experience and intervention efficacy and ultimately scale the program widely. To achieve this goal, we are collaborating with AARP. The Specific Aims of the study are to: Aim 1: Characterize caregivers of persons with ADRD using Staying Sharp. We will send out a survey to registrants of Staying Sharp. We hypothesize that caregiver users are younger, predominantly women, with higher stress, and less social support than non-caregiver users. This aim will clarify the demographics and basic health conditions of caregivers who have been utilizing this online health intervention. Aim 2: Evaluate user experiences of Staying Sharp. We will use the same survey in aim 1 to assess user experiences with a focus on the profile of sustainable use characteristics. We hypothesize caregiver users will spend more time on stress and exercise pillars than non-caregiver users. This aim will evaluate the engagement and uptake of Staying Sharp among dementia caregivers. Aim 3: Establish preliminary efficacy of Staying Sharp intervention. Using unobtrusive home-sensing technologies, twenty newly-recruited caregivers of persons with ADRD will participate in a 4-month intervention with 4 months follow-up. We hypothesize that Staying Sharp will promote physical, mental, and social health for caregivers of persons with ADRD. A non-linear dose-response curve will be used to determine the pre- to post-intervention changes associated with Staying Sharp. This aim involves understanding interventions pointing toward refinement, modification, and adaptation for caregivers and pilot testing. PROACTS uniquely takes an existing publicly available online health intervention and rapidly tests its efficacy using a home-based, unobtrusive technology platform to provide ecologically valid evidence of how this multi-component intervention may support health in caregivers of persons with ADRD. The PROACTS study will lay the groundwork for later stage (III/IV) effectiveness studies. Future grants (R01/PCORI) will bring together caregivers and health stakeholders to evaluate elements within Staying Sharp for ensuring a high-quality, high-impact, and scalable caregiver intervention.