# A home-based, culturally and language specific intervention for dementia family caregivers: stress reduction and education with wearable technology for health

> **NIH NIH R01** · UNIVERSITY OF CALIFORNIA-IRVINE · 2020 · $763,220

## Abstract

ABSTRACT
Over 5.8 million Americans are living with Alzheimer's dementia, a disease with no effective treatment and no
cure. Two-thirds of the caregivers for persons with dementia (PWD) are women (most often family) and a third
are themselves over 65. Dementia takes a significant toll on caregivers, often resulting in chronic stress,
depression, sleep disorders, poor health related quality of life (HRQOL), and early mortality due 24/7 care
responsibility for PWD. Research has shown significant barriers to dementia care for underserved populations,
including Latinos and Asian minorities. Underserved family caregivers for PWD tend to underutilize public
health services available, and do not seek treatment until the situation is unmanageable with current resources
reporting barriers that included language, time, and finances. Monitoring the caregiver's health and wellbeing is
important as well as their maintaining a positive interaction with the PWD. Thus, there is a need for an
innovative and feasible intervention to improve underserved caregiver's mental and physical health. Little
research is reported for dementia caregiver interventions in underserved minorities and one given at home by
community health workers (CHWs). The proposed intervention meets the needs of these family caregivers in
developing a positive relationship with the PWD by educating caregivers to better understand the PWD's
behaviors. Another component of the intervention is stress reduction techniques, including mindful deep
breathing and compassionate support/listening to reduce depression and improve family relationships making
the caregiving less burdensome. By monitoring the physiological responses of stress (i.e. heart rate variability),
sleep and activity, we can objectively measure changes as a result of the intervention. Using Wearable Internet
of Things (WIoT) technology, a combination of Watch/ring-Smartphone-Cloud, has proven to be a significant
method of monitoring behavioral and physiological measures providing evidence of change over time and
uniquely associated with this intervention. Our preliminary data show that the intervention with WIoT brought to
the caregiver by CHW home visitors was acceptable to ethnic caregivers (Latino, Vietnamese, and Korean)
and effective in reducing caregiver stress and burden over the short term. With the addition of non-Hispanic
Whites, the proposed caregiver-centered, culturally and language appropriate, CHW home-visit-based 3-month
intervention has 3 significant parts:1) stress reduction by mindful breathing and compassionate support/
listening to improve caregiver's health and well-being; 2) education on caregiving skills to improve responses
to the PWD and in turn their behaviors; 3) WIoT physiological and behavioral monitoring. This 6-month
randomized controlled trial will compare outcomes (burden, depression, HRQOL, PWD behaviors, caregiving
self-efficacy) between the intervention, attention control with use of the WIoT only...

## Key facts

- **NIH application ID:** 10055352
- **Project number:** 1R01AG069074-01
- **Recipient organization:** UNIVERSITY OF CALIFORNIA-IRVINE
- **Principal Investigator:** Jung-Ah Lee
- **Activity code:** R01 (R01, R21, SBIR, etc.)
- **Funding institute:** NIH
- **Fiscal year:** 2020
- **Award amount:** $763,220
- **Award type:** 1
- **Project period:** 2020-09-15 → 2025-05-31

## Primary source

NIH RePORTER: https://reporter.nih.gov/project-details/10055352

## Citation

> US National Institutes of Health, RePORTER application 10055352, A home-based, culturally and language specific intervention for dementia family caregivers: stress reduction and education with wearable technology for health (1R01AG069074-01). Retrieved via AI Analytics 2026-05-22 from https://api.ai-analytics.org/grant/nih/10055352. Licensed CC0.

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