# Reducing social isolation due to communication disorders in adults with dementia and their caregivers

> **NIH NIH R01** · UNIVERSITY OF WASHINGTON · 2022 · $272,682

## Abstract

Reducing Social Isolation due to Communication Disorders in Adults with Dementia and their Families
Social isolation is a major contributor to poorer health, quality of life, and even survival. Adults with Alzheimer’s
and other dementias are at high risk for social isolation because their language, memory, and other cognitive
impairments make it difficult to interact with others. Because of their cognitive-communication impairments,
people with dementia increasingly depend on environmental accommodations to help them engage and
interact with others. The most critical environmental accommodation for communication is the behavior of other
people with whom the person interacts. Family members, who usually provide such support, may find it hard to
do so because of how they are impacted by the communication disorder themselves (third-party disability)
through increased care burden and loss of emotional closeness. The term ‘perceived social support’ refers to
the help that people feel they have available to them in times of hardship. Our prior research has identified that
perceived social support, as defined and measured in general healthcare domains, does not capture needed
physical, attitudinal, and environmental supports for communication. While qualitative research suggests that
communication partners are highly influential in keeping people with communication disorders active in home
and community activities, little is known about: 1) the extent and nature of perceived social support for
communication and how this influences life participation for people with dementia, and 2) the extent to which
families experience third-party disability related to their loved-ones communication disorder, and how this
impacts both their own social participation and their ability to provide communication support for their loved one
with dementia. The long-term goal of this research is to help people with communication disorders and their
families reduce social isolation and engage in fulfilling life participation by improving environmental
communication support for patients and their families. The parent grant for this supplement is using survey
methods to establish the psychometric properties of a new measure of social support for communication, and
testing the hypothesis that the construct of perceived social support for communication is distinct from the
general concept of perceived social support used in healthcare. The parent grant also explores how third-party
disability contributes to reduced communicative participation for both patients and family. The parent grant
includes adults with motor speech and voice disorders. This supplement extends that work to people with
dementia by exploring the self-reported restrictions in communicative participation and perceived social
support for communication in adults with mild / early dementia; as well as exploring third-party disability and
communicative participation restrictions of family members of people along the...

## Key facts

- **NIH application ID:** 10497469
- **Project number:** 3R01DC019352-02S1
- **Recipient organization:** UNIVERSITY OF WASHINGTON
- **Principal Investigator:** Carolyn Rae Baylor
- **Activity code:** R01 (R01, R21, SBIR, etc.)
- **Funding institute:** NIH
- **Fiscal year:** 2022
- **Award amount:** $272,682
- **Award type:** 3
- **Project period:** 2021-04-05 → 2026-03-31

## Primary source

NIH RePORTER: https://reporter.nih.gov/project-details/10497469

## Citation

> US National Institutes of Health, RePORTER application 10497469, Reducing social isolation due to communication disorders in adults with dementia and their caregivers (3R01DC019352-02S1). Retrieved via AI Analytics 2026-05-27 from https://api.ai-analytics.org/grant/nih/10497469. Licensed CC0.

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