Developement of a tailored intervention responding to the needs expressed by caregivers of persons living with dementia

Clarisse Dibao

Keywords: Tailored intervention - caregivers - dementia - needs

Background:

The multidimensional interventions carried out to reduce the caregiver's burden are based on psychological support, advice, therapeutic education, information and respite structures. These interventions are not very effective due to the great heterogeneity of caregivers, insufficient intervention time and improvement objectives that do not correspond to the expectations of caregivers. The judgment criteria used in these studies are alos heterogeneou. Knowledge of the patient and caregiver, their living and care context, and better coordination of care could make these different interventions more effective by adapting them to the needs of caregivers, which are currently poorly understood. It is therefore necessary to develop this complex intervention, to implement an assessment of the context, of which the expectations of caregivers of patients with Alzheimer's disease are part, accompanied by a reflection on the choice of relevant judgment criteria.

Research questions:

How to develop a tailored intervention responding to the needs expressed by caregivers of persons living with dementia ?

Method:

Observational and qualitative study whose main objective is to build a personalized complex intervention that meets the expectations of caregivers of patients living with Alzheimer's disease. A Delphi method will be used to determine the different components of the intervention among results from previous exploratory studies and an updated review of the literature. The primary outcome will be the description of the intervention following the recommendations of the TIDieR checklist. The secondary objectives will be the assessment of the feasibility, fidelity and relevance of the intervention. The secondary evaluation criteria will be:
- The acceptability of caregivers and healthcare professionals obtained through qualitative interviews (assessment of the acceptability of the intervention)
- The consensus on the judgment criterion(ies) obtained by the DELPHI method from caregivers

Results:

N/A

Conclusions:

N/A

Points for discussion:

How to adapt the intervention to different cultures ?

How to intergrate cultural specificity in a complex and tailored intervention development ?

What outcome to choose if the needs of caregivers are different ?