Pair 2 Care: Peer Support for Caregivers of African Americans Living With Dementia (Pair2Care)

The purpose of this study is to test a peer support intervention for caregivers who are caring for a loved one living with dementia.

Study Overview

• Status: Enrolling by invitation
• Conditions: Dementia; Family Caregiver; Peer Support
• Intervention / Treatment: Behavioral: Peer Support

Detailed Description

African Americans are twice as likely to develop Alzheimer's disease or a related form of dementia (ADRD) than their White counterparts. These individuals are, however, more often diagnosed later, creating additional physical, spiritual, psychosocial challenges for both the person living with ADRD and their family caregivers. African American ADRD caregivers are therefore at greater risk for adverse physiological and psychological health effects of caregiving, including significant burden and stress. Evidence suggests that peer to peer support using storytelling may be effective in assisting ADRD caregivers with surrogate healthcare decision making, an important aspect of palliative care. Access to and use of palliative care, a recognized approach to serious illness care symptom management, among African Americans are low. The impact of this healthcare inequity further reduces the quality of life for African American ADRD caregivers and subsequently their care recipients. Prior approaches to serious illness care have failed to address the needs of African Americans living with ADRD from a palliative care perspective. This inability to meet their needs leads to increased unmet caregiver needs. Peer mentorship, a relationship-centered person-to-person approach may reduce healthcare decision making burden within cultural groups such as African Americans through cultural tailoring by promoting oral traditions, personal contact, and storytelling. Our current study includes perspectives of lower socioeconomic status African American ADRD caregivers who have expressed the need for person-centered, non-judgmental, on-demand, culturally congruent caregiving support for advance care planning and healthcare decision making. Simultaneously, former caregivers retrospectively described perceived benefits of peer support while caregiving and their willingness to serve as peer mentors to current caregivers. Additional data from healthcare provider and community stakeholders support the need and potential benefits of peer support for ADRD caregivers. Based on these preliminary findings, there is an urgent need and exciting opportunity to address the unmet palliative care needs of current caregivers through peer support. For this innovative project, investigators will use the experiential expertise of former caregivers to help current caregivers with advance care planning and healthcare decision making. The purpose of this project is to use a stakeholder-informed approach in further developing and pilot testing the co-created Peer Support for Caregivers of African Americans Living with Alzheimer's Disease and Related Dementias (Pair2Care), a culturally sensitive caregiver peer support intervention.

Aim: Conduct feasibility and acceptability testing of Pair 2 Care in current and trained former African American ADRD family caregiver peers paired based on congruent identity traits (e.g., relationship to care recipient, gender identity, etc.). Investigators will determine if Pair2Care is feasible and acceptable by evaluating satisfaction and appropriateness of the intervention for broader dissemination.

• Study Type: Interventional
• Enrollment (Estimated): 30
• Phase: Not Applicable

Contacts and Locations

• Study Contact: Name: Sandra Solove, MA; Phone Number: 614-247-8366; Email: solove.3@osu.edu
• Study Contact Backup: Name: Karen O Moss, PhD; Phone Number: (614) 688-3100; Email: Moss.391@osu.edu

Study Locations

• United States
  • Ohio
    • Columbus, Ohio, United States, 43210
      • Ohio State University College of Nursing
      • Contact: Susie Breitenstein, PhD

Participation Criteria

Eligibility Criteria

• Ages Eligible for Study: Adult; Older Adult
• Accepts Healthy Volunteers: No

Description

Inclusion Criteria:

• African-American
• English-speaking
• Adult (18+)
• Family caregivers of people living with dementia (current or former)

Exclusion Criteria:

• Non-African-American
• Non-English-speaking
• Under age 18
• Non-Family caregiver

Study Plan

How is the study designed?

Design Details

• Primary Purpose: Supportive Care
• Allocation: N/A
• Interventional Model: Single Group Assignment
• Masking: None (Open Label)

Number of Arms

1

Arms and Interventions

Participant Group / Arm	Intervention / Treatment
Experimental: Peer Support; Former caregivers will be paired with a current caregivers	Behavioral: Peer Support; Former caregivers will be paired with a current caregiver based on a similar personal attribute (e.g., relationship to care recipient). Each pair will complete at least five virtual face-to-face (video) interactions and at least 10 other interactions either via phone call, email, or text messaging over the 6-month time period.

What is the study measuring?

Primary Outcome Measures

Outcome Measure	Measure Description	Time Frame
Medical Outcomes Study Social Support Survey (MOS SSS) (MOS SSS)	This is a brief, self-administered instrument contains 19 items with likert-type scale answers ranging from (1) "none of the time" to (2) "all of the time". Higher scores indicate more social support and better outcomes.	Baseline, 3 months, 6 months and 7 months

Collaborators and Investigators

• Sponsor: Ohio State University
• Collaborators: Cambia Health Foundation

Study record dates

Study Major Dates

• Study Start (Actual): October 5, 2023
• Primary Completion (Estimated): December 1, 2024
• Study Completion (Estimated): September 1, 2025

Study Registration Dates

• First Submitted: September 26, 2023
• First Submitted That Met QC Criteria: September 26, 2023
• First Posted (Actual): October 3, 2023

Study Record Updates

• Last Update Posted (Actual): October 11, 2023
• Last Update Submitted That Met QC Criteria: October 9, 2023
• Last Verified: October 1, 2023

More Information

Terms related to this study

• Keywords: African American/Black
• Additional Relevant MeSH Terms: Mental Disorders; Brain Diseases; Central Nervous System Diseases; Nervous System Diseases; Neurocognitive Disorders; Dementia
• Other Study ID Numbers: 2023B0071

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