# The Home Safe Study: Testing the feasibility of a respondent-driven sampling strategy among dementia home care workers > **NIH NIH K23** · UNIVERSITY OF MICHIGAN AT ANN ARBOR · 2022 · $171,720 ## Abstract 1 PROJECT ABSTRACT 2 Background: Home care workers are integral actors in the support of aging in place for persons living with 3 Alzheimer’s disease and Alzheimer’s disease-related dementias (ADRD). Over 3.2 million home care workers 4 across the U.S. provide crucial supportive care, meeting such activities of daily living as bathing and dressing, 5 that allows older Americans with memory care issues to continue to age in place. Despite their critical 6 importance in promoting healthy aging, evidence-based knowledge on the home care workforce remains a gap 7 in the literature. More importantly, there is a dearth of scientifically validated sampling strategies in this high- 8 risk, historically excluded population of direct care workers. The overall goal of the Home Safe study is to 9 conduct pilot interviews, and assess and develop respondent-driven sampling methods (RDS) specifically for 10 home care workers. Our team is uniquely prepared to conduct the proposed study, given our expertise in the 11 study of aging, home-based care and use of RDS methods. Specific Aims: In Aim 1, we will conduct 12 interviews with dementia home care workers to determine the barriers, facilitators and adaptations to protecting 13 their safety and well-being during the pandemic. In Aim 2, we will determine the feasibility of using respondent- 14 driven sampling methods to establish a longitudinal study of dementia home care workers. Project Methods: 15 This study will conduct semi-structured video interviews with dementia home care workers in Michigan, using 16 an inferential process to determine characteristics of their social network and the barriers and facilitators in 17 acceptability of RDS sampling strategy in order to guide the design of longitudinal survey (Aim 2), and 18 establish a pilot interview to identify 1) barriers home-based care workers faced that impacted their ability to 19 provide safe care, 2) facilitators that allowed them to feel safe at work, and 3) adaptations made to core 20 employment and personal tasks due to COVID-19 risk (Aim 1). Unique Features and Innovation: This study 21 has several innovations: Home care workers are an understudied group, where our proposed research will 22 contribute to addressing the economic and workforce policy challenges of this group of direct care workers in 23 order to better support individuals with ADRD and their family caregivers. Our study of the feasibility of an RDS 24 sampling strategy will allow us to develop operational knowledge about RDS in the healthcare setting, in 25 particular among direct care workers. Anticipated Impact: This study will contribute to methodological 26 innovations in the study of hard to sample groups but will more importantly provide needed research data on 27 the home care workforce, and lead to a larger longitudinal study of home care workers. The need for this study 28 is critically important given the key role of home care workers play to support individuals w... ## Key facts - **NIH application ID:** 10498247 - **Project number:** 3K23AG059890-05S1 - **Recipient organization:** UNIVERSITY OF MICHIGAN AT ANN ARBOR - **Principal Investigator:** Susan Anne Bell - **Activity code:** K23 (R01, R21, SBIR, etc.) - **Funding institute:** NIH - **Fiscal year:** 2022 - **Award amount:** $171,720 - **Award type:** 3 - **Project period:** 2018-09-01 → 2024-05-31 ## Primary source NIH RePORTER: https://reporter.nih.gov/project-details/10498247 ## Citation > US National Institutes of Health, RePORTER application 10498247, The Home Safe Study: Testing the feasibility of a respondent-driven sampling strategy among dementia home care workers (3K23AG059890-05S1). Retrieved via AI Analytics 2026-05-26 from https://api.ai-analytics.org/grant/nih/10498247. Licensed CC0. --- *[NIH grants dataset](/datasets/nih-grants) · CC0 1.0*