Dementia Care Training With Virtual Reality and Support for Home Care Staff

Evaluation of a Dementia Care Training With Virtual Reality and Support Program for Home Care Staff

This study aims to evaluate a dementia care training with virtual reality and peer support program on dementia care knowledge, attitude, care competence, work stress, and empathy of home care staff.

Study Overview

• Status: Completed
• Conditions: Dementia
• Intervention / Treatment: Other: Intervention group; Other: Control group

Detailed Description

Home care staff often have insufficient knowledge and skills of caring people with dementia at home. Many lack empathy for those with dementia. Training courses for home care staff often are not developed according to their educational background and workplace needs.

This two-group cluster randomised controlled trial aims to evaluate a dementia care training with virtual reality and peer support program on dementia care knowledge, attitude, care competence, work stress, and empathy of home care staff.

The dementia care training consists of dementia care e-books, dementia virtual reality activity and peer support program.

The interventional group will receive a dementia care training using dementia care e-books, dementia virtual reality activity and peer support program.

The control group will only receive dementia care e-books and peer support with no dementia virtual reality activity.

Both groups will be assessed for their dementia care knowledge, attitudes, care competence, work stress and empathy at baseline, month 3, and 6.

• Study Type: Interventional
• Enrollment (Actual): 124
• Phase: Not Applicable

Contacts and Locations

Study Locations

• Taiwan
  • Hualien City, Taiwan, 970
    • Mennonite Social Welfare foundation

Participation Criteria

Eligibility Criteria

• Ages Eligible for Study: 20 years to 65 years (Adult, Older Adult)
• Accepts Healthy Volunteers: Yes

Description

Inclusion Criteria:

• age 20 to 65 years
• Taiwanese nationality
• had worked as a home care staff for at least three months
• had experience in providing home care for patients with dementia
• had a mobile phone or tablet and regular access to the internet

Exclusion Criteria:

• Home care staff who do not meet the inclusion criteria
• can not provide informed consent.

Study Plan

How is the study designed?

Design Details

• Primary Purpose: Other
• Allocation: Randomized
• Interventional Model: Parallel Assignment
• Masking: Double

Number of Arms

2

Arms and Interventions

Participant Group / Arm	Intervention / Treatment
Experimental: Intervention group; receive dementia care training	Other: Intervention group; Dementia care training consists of dementia care e-books, dementia virtual reality activity and peer support program.
Active Comparator: Control group; receive dementia care training without virtual reality activity	Other: Control group; Dementia care training consists of dementia care e-books and peer support program without dementia virtual reality activity

What is the study measuring?

Primary Outcome Measures

Outcome Measure	Measure Description	Time Frame
Dementia Knowledge Assessment Scale	To evaluate care staff's knowledge of dementia, range from 0-50	6 months
Approach to Dementia Questionnaire	To evaluate care staff's attitude toward Dementia, range from 19-95	6 moths
Sense of Competence in Dementia Care Staff Scale	To evaluate care staff's competence of caring for people with dementia, range from 16-68	6 months
Jefferson Scale of Empathy	To evaluate care staff's level of empathy toward patients, score range from 20-140	6 months

Secondary Outcome Measures

Outcome Measure	Measure Description	Time Frame
Simple Work Stress Scale	To evaluate level of work stress of care staff	6 moths

Collaborators and Investigators

• Sponsor: Tzu Chi University
• Investigators: Principal Investigator: Huei-Chuan Sung, PhD, Tzu Chi University

Study record dates

Study Major Dates

• Study Start (Actual): March 29, 2021
• Primary Completion (Actual): September 30, 2021
• Study Completion (Actual): October 31, 2021

Study Registration Dates

• First Submitted: March 2, 2021
• First Submitted That Met QC Criteria: March 4, 2021
• First Posted (Actual): March 9, 2021

Study Record Updates

• Last Update Posted (Actual): August 6, 2025
• Last Update Submitted That Met QC Criteria: July 31, 2025
• Last Verified: July 1, 2025

More Information

Terms related to this study

• Keywords: virtual reality; dementia care; Home care staff
• Additional Relevant MeSH Terms: Brain Diseases; Central Nervous System Diseases; Nervous System Diseases; Mental Disorders; Neurocognitive Disorders; Dementia
• Other Study ID Numbers: YLH-IRB-10815

Plan for Individual participant data (IPD)

• Plan to Share Individual Participant Data (IPD)?: NO

Drug and device information, study documents

• Studies a U.S. FDA-regulated drug product: No
• Studies a U.S. FDA-regulated device product: No
• product manufactured in and exported from the U.S.: No