# To reduce the burden of caregiving on health outcomes of midlife women: Asian American family caregivers of persons living with Alzheimer's disease

> **NIH NIH R21** · EMORY UNIVERSITY · 2022 · $273,875

## Abstract

Currently, in the U.S., 5.8 million persons are living with Alzheimer’s Disease, subsequently involving about 15
million family caregivers. The wide negative influences of caregiving on health outcomes of family caregivers of
persons living with Alzheimer’s Disease (PLAD) have been reported. Furthermore, racial/ethnic minority women
including Asian American midlife women are more likely to suffer from caregiving burden compared with their
counterparts, mainly due to their cultural attitudes related to Alzheimer’s Disease and caregiving (e.g., stigma,
family obligations, women as caregivers). To reduce the burden of caregiving on the health outcomes of midlife
women who are family caregivers of PLAD (MWPLAD), an increasing number of interventions to provide
information and support/coaching have been developed and used. However, most of the interventions have
rarely succeeded in achieving their goals, and dropout rates have been high. One major reason may be that the
interventions have rarely been designed while considering caregivers’ cultural attitudes related to Alzheimer’s
Disease and caregiving. For instance, due to cultural hesitance to discuss dementia, Asian Americans tend not
to share their caregiving experience, including their heavy burden of caregiving and subsequent psychological
and physical symptoms, until they get severe/serious problems/issues that cannot be tolerated anymore. Also,
most interventions require MWPLAD to arrange care for the care recipient while the caregivers travel to and
attend the interventions. With advances in computer and mobile technologies, a technology-based program can
provide a highly innovative and effective way (without physical attendance) to provide information and
coaching/support for MWPLAD while considering their cultural attitudes. Thus, based on the Bandura’s Theory,
the research team developed the first technology-based information and coaching/support program that is
tailored for Asian American midlife women who are family caregivers of PLAD (TACAD) while considering their
cultural attitudes. TACAD uses a web app with Virtual Reality technology and has several innovative features in
its design and delivery methods that overcome shortcomings in existing programs (including cultural tailoring
and self-adaptation functionality using a machine learning method). The purpose of this 2-phase, mixed-
methods, exploratory study is to preliminarily evaluate TACAD in improving health outcomes of Asian American
midlife women who are family caregivers of persons living with Alzheimer’s disease (AACA) and their care
recipients. Specific aims are to: (a) qualitatively evaluate TACAD through an expert review and a usability test;
and (b) quantitatively evaluate the preliminary efficacy of TACAD in improving health outcomes of AACA and
their care recipients. Phase 1 includes an expert review among 5 experts in in family caregivers of PLAD and a
usability test among 10 AACA. Phase 2 adopts a randomized repeated ...

## Key facts

- **NIH application ID:** 10524474
- **Project number:** 1R21AG075247-01A1
- **Recipient organization:** EMORY UNIVERSITY
- **Principal Investigator:** Wonshik Chee
- **Activity code:** R21 (R01, R21, SBIR, etc.)
- **Funding institute:** NIH
- **Fiscal year:** 2022
- **Award amount:** $273,875
- **Award type:** 1
- **Project period:** 2022-09-01 → 2024-08-31

## Primary source

NIH RePORTER: https://reporter.nih.gov/project-details/10524474

## Citation

> US National Institutes of Health, RePORTER application 10524474, To reduce the burden of caregiving on health outcomes of midlife women: Asian American family caregivers of persons living with Alzheimer's disease (1R21AG075247-01A1). Retrieved via AI Analytics 2026-05-25 from https://api.ai-analytics.org/grant/nih/10524474. Licensed CC0.

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