# Assessing the influence of family care resources on care utilization and transitions for older adults with dementia

> **NIH NIH K01** · UNIVERSITY OF MICHIGAN AT ANN ARBOR · 2021 · $58,736

## Abstract

PROJECT SUMMARY/ABSTRACT
Older adults with Alzheimer’s Disease and Related Dementias (ADRD) are especially vulnerable to the virus as
many of them have comorbidities. Despite the need of frequent hands-on care due to their limitations in
physical and cognitive functioning, home care services and institutional care services are limited and
challenging during the pandemic. Family care support may mitigate the adverse effect of the pandemic on care
utilization of persons with ADRD. However, there is substantial variation in family care availability across
populations which may result in unequal consequences of COVID-19. Those with little family care availability
(e.g., no spouse or no adult child nearby) are likely to be most vulnerable during the pandemic and may need to
rely on institutional care despite the greater health risk. The pandemic has also profoundly impacted the social
and economic circumstances of many families (e.g., job loss and home schooling) and consequently, on their
care availability for older adults with ADRD.
Despite an urgent public health need to address unmet care need for older adults, little is known about changes
in family care availability and its influence on care use by persons with ADRD during the COVID-19 pandemic.
To address this gap in evidence and hence inform interventions to minimize the adverse consequences of the
pandemic on persons with ADRD and their families, the study has the following aims:
First, the project will determine the extent to which family care availability (e.g., presence of healthy spouse,
presence of adult children coresident or living nearby) moderates the influence of COVID-19 pandemic on care
received by persons with ADRD. It will also assess differences in the impact of the pandemic on care utilization
by persons with ADRD across demographic and socioeconomic groups. It will use nationally representative
longitudinal studies to examine changes in care received by persons with ADRD over time -- including both the
pre-pandemic and pandemic period. Newly added survey questions on COVID-19 to these studies will be also
examined.
Second, it will assess the extent to which COVID-19 pandemic affected family care availability for a person with
ADRD and hence changed the care role of each family member and care allocations among family members. To
understand family dynamics in caregiving while responding to various challenges during the pandemic, we will
use a mixed-methods approach.
The proposed aims are within the scope of the parent study (K01AG057820) since they assesse the implications
of COVID-19 pandemic for family care availability and its consequences for older persons with ADRD and their
family caregivers. Results from the study will inform public health interventions and policy to mitigate adverse
consequences of the pandemic and identify vulnerable population groups among older persons with ADRD and
their families.
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## Key facts

- **NIH application ID:** 10305099
- **Project number:** 3K01AG057820-03S1
- **Recipient organization:** UNIVERSITY OF MICHIGAN AT ANN ARBOR
- **Principal Investigator:** HwaJung Choi
- **Activity code:** K01 (R01, R21, SBIR, etc.)
- **Funding institute:** NIH
- **Fiscal year:** 2021
- **Award amount:** $58,736
- **Award type:** 3
- **Project period:** 2018-09-01 → 2023-04-30

## Primary source

NIH RePORTER: https://reporter.nih.gov/project-details/10305099

## Citation

> US National Institutes of Health, RePORTER application 10305099, Assessing the influence of family care resources on care utilization and transitions for older adults with dementia (3K01AG057820-03S1). Retrieved via AI Analytics 2026-05-26 from https://api.ai-analytics.org/grant/nih/10305099. Licensed CC0.

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