# Developing a Culturally-sensitive Volunteering Program to Reduce Stress of Dementia Caregivers in Chinese American Communities

> **NIH NIH K01** · COLUMBIA UNIV NEW YORK MORNINGSIDE · 2021 · $125,442

## Abstract

PROJECT SUMMARY/ABSTRACT
Given the increasing prevalence of Alzheimer’s disease and related dementia (ADRD) in the United States and
the quickly growing population of older Chinese Americans, many older Chinese Americans are expected to
need intensive care because of cognitive impairment. Few interventions have been designed to address
caregiver needs among Chinese Americans, despite previous studies showing critical issues of poverty, low
acculturation, and poor mental health in this population, the largest group of Asian Americans. A large gap
exists in development of culturally sensitive interventions to reduce stress among caregivers in Chinese
American communities. This Research Career Development Award (K01) will give Dr. Liu the training,
mentoring, and skills necessary to conduct intervention research to reduce the burden of dementia care among
Chinese American families. The proposed mentored research activities for this K01 award involve developing
and pilot testing a culturally sensitive intervention, the Peer Mentoring Program (PMP). Informed by the
sociocultural stress and coping model, the PMP will build human resources among experiential Chinese
caregivers to provide mentoring support for newer caregivers in the same ethnic community. This K01
application is responsive to NIA Research Goal E: “Improve our ability to reduce health disparities and
eliminate health inequities among older adults.” It is also consistent with the National Alzheimer’s Project Act’s
efforts to ensure receipt of culturally sensitive education, training, and support materials; involve more racially
and ethnically diverse older adults in research; and develop effective services to support ethnically diverse
families. To become an independent investigator in behavioral intervention research, Dr. Liu will receive
training and mentoring in three areas: (a) knowledge of ADRD, interventions for caregivers, and dementia
caregiving; (b) methodological skills to conduct community-based participatory research; and (c) theoretical
and methodological skills to design and conduct scientifically rigorous intervention research. Mentored
research training will occur in the context of a focused research project with three aims: (1) study the
challenges and enablers of successful caregiving for persons with ADRD in the Chinese American
communities of New York City; (2) develop a culturally sensitive volunteering intervention (PMP) to reduce
stress and improve well-being of Chinese dementia caregivers; and (3) obtain preliminary data on feasibility
and acceptability of the PMP. By the end of the K01 award, Dr. Liu will complete the transition from
observational and explanatory to community-based intervention work and submit an R01 proposal and several
manuscripts based on the study results for publication in peer-reviewed journals. The strong mentoring team,
well-established collaborative relationships with community organizations in New York City, and marvelous
academic resour...

## Key facts

- **NIH application ID:** 10218027
- **Project number:** 5K01AG064028-03
- **Recipient organization:** COLUMBIA UNIV NEW YORK MORNINGSIDE
- **Principal Investigator:** Jinyu Liu
- **Activity code:** K01 (R01, R21, SBIR, etc.)
- **Funding institute:** NIH
- **Fiscal year:** 2021
- **Award amount:** $125,442
- **Award type:** 5
- **Project period:** 2019-08-01 → 2024-05-31

## Primary source

NIH RePORTER: https://reporter.nih.gov/project-details/10218027

## Citation

> US National Institutes of Health, RePORTER application 10218027, Developing a Culturally-sensitive Volunteering Program to Reduce Stress of Dementia Caregivers in Chinese American Communities (5K01AG064028-03). Retrieved via AI Analytics 2026-05-27 from https://api.ai-analytics.org/grant/nih/10218027. Licensed CC0.

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