# Easing the Burden of Dementia Caregiving: A Telephone-delivered Mindfulness Intervention for Rural, African American Families

> **NIH NIH R21** · UNIV OF NORTH CAROLINA CHAPEL HILL · 2020 · $194,375

## Abstract

Project Summary:
The number of individuals and families impacted by Alzheimer's disease and related dementia (ADRD) is
projected to triple by 2050 and many of those impacted will be African Americans (AAs). Similar to other
dementia caregiving families, AAs provide the majority of care for their loved one at home and experience
rewards as well as physical, financial, and emotional burden, including anxiety and stress. Moreover, AA
families who live in rural areas have unique cultural, geographic, health-related and socio-economic needs,
including relatively less access to, and willingness to engage with, formal supports and resources, and poorer
health outcomes; however, there have been few interventions targeted to rural AA caregivers of persons with
dementia. One effective intervention, mindfulness-based stress reduction (MBSR), has been found to be
culturally acceptable in AA populations; however, no studies have assessed feasibility, acceptability and
impact of an adapted mindfulness intervention targeting rural AA dementia caregivers. The proposed project
will test the feasibility and acceptability of a telephone-delivered adaptation of an MBSR intervention for
decreasing burden among rural African American caregivers of community-based persons with ADRD. We
hypothesize that a telephone-delivered intervention will be accessible and feasible. Additionally, given the
importance of informal family support reported in AA caregiving populations, the intervention will target both a
primary caregiver and a care partner who shares care responsibilities (“caregiving team”) to explore potential
positive impacts on burden, such as improved communication and reduced conflict. The project's specific aims
are: 1) to determine the feasibility and acceptability of a telephone-delivered mindfulness training intervention
(TMT) in decreasing caregiver burden among rural, African American informal caregiving teams of people with
dementia; 2) to explore effects of the training on relevant secondary outcomes for both caregiving team
members, including emotional regulation; tolerance of uncertainty; emotional and physical health; family
conflict within the informal caregiving team; and self-efficacy; 3) to explore comfort with and willingness to
adopt technologies (e.g. telephone-based, web-based) to access mindfulness practices and existing caregiving
educational resources. This novel project will add important information regarding feasibility and acceptability
of a telephone-delivered adaptation of an evidence-based mindfulness intervention involving caregiver teams,
in reducing caregiver burden in an underserved, rural African American caregiver population. By targeting
multiple family members from the caregiving team, we will extend knowledge regarding usefulness of
mindfulness skills training beyond the typical intrapersonal benefits, and into interpersonal communication and
relationship benefits. Findings will inform future larger-scaled RCT interventions, ...

## Key facts

- **NIH application ID:** 9856400
- **Project number:** 5R21AG061728-02
- **Recipient organization:** UNIV OF NORTH CAROLINA CHAPEL HILL
- **Principal Investigator:** Susan Gaylord
- **Activity code:** R21 (R01, R21, SBIR, etc.)
- **Funding institute:** NIH
- **Fiscal year:** 2020
- **Award amount:** $194,375
- **Award type:** 5
- **Project period:** 2019-02-01 → 2022-06-30

## Primary source

NIH RePORTER: https://reporter.nih.gov/project-details/9856400

## Citation

> US National Institutes of Health, RePORTER application 9856400, Easing the Burden of Dementia Caregiving: A Telephone-delivered Mindfulness Intervention for Rural, African American Families (5R21AG061728-02). Retrieved via AI Analytics 2026-05-22 from https://api.ai-analytics.org/grant/nih/9856400. Licensed CC0.

---

*[NIH grants dataset](/datasets/nih-grants) · CC0 1.0*