Positive Dementia Caregiving: Clinical Trial of an Online Training Program

Positive Dementia Caregiving in 30 Days: Randomized Controlled Trial of a Self-guided Automated Online Training Program

The goal of this study is to learn if a new online training program is helpful to dementia family caregivers. This online program is fully computerized and supports 24/7 access from any location. The main questions it aims to answer are:

• Does the training program improves the participants' well-being and sense of positive meaning?
• If the program is found to be helpful, does it work through enhancing caregivers' self-belief or getting them to practice positive interpretation of caregiving challenges?

To answer these questions, researchers will compare the online program to a waitlist control.

Participants will:

• Use the intervention (requiring internet access) in a self-guided manner
• Respond to brief questionnaires at the beginning, and 1, 2 and 3 months afterwards

Study Overview

• Status: Completed
• Conditions: Caregiver Stress Syndrome
• Intervention / Treatment: Behavioral: Positive Dementia Caregiving in 30 Days

Detailed Description

The Benefit-Finding Intervention is a type of caregiver intervention called psychoeducation with psychotherapeutic components. It combines standard topics of psychoeducation (e.g., training of care skills and stress management) with training on thinking style. As implied by the title 'benefit-finding', the training style in focus is the inclination to think alternatively and positively about challenging caregiving situations. In two clinical trials, the Benefit-Finding Intervention was compared with didactic psychoeducational programs but without thought training. This comparison allowed researchers to see if the addition of the benefit-finding component produced improvements over the above those achieved by standard psychoeducation. Results supported the superiority of the Benefit-Finding Intervention, with significantly greater reductions of depression and burden up to 10 months after the termination of the intervention.

A face-to-face intervention is nonetheless labor intensive. It may also cause inconvenience to caregivers who have to find blocks of time to attend the intervention, while making sure the care-recipient is being attended to. Having to travel to receive help is another challenge, especially for rural populations and older caregivers. The limitation of the face-to-face format was further exposed during the pandemic when such meetings were simply impossible. To address these issues, the original Benefit-Finding Intervention has been adapted for computer-automated delivery on a web platform, which is accessible anytime anywhere. The online intervention is not meant to replace traditional manned intervention, but as an alternative service for those who, for various reasons, cannot benefit from traditional interventions or who prefer the flexible, self-guided and self-paced approach offered by this intervention.

• Study Type: Interventional
• Enrollment (Actual): 274
• Phase: Phase 2

Contacts and Locations

Study Locations

• Hong Kong
  • Hong Kong, Hong Kong
    • The Education University of Hong Kong

Participation Criteria

Eligibility Criteria

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

Description

Inclusion Criteria:

• Having been a dementia caregiver for 3 or more months
• Providing 10 or more hours of care per week
• Scoring 5 or above on the Patient Health Questionnaire-9
• Passing a simple reading comprehension test

Exclusion Criteria:

• Caregiver having participated in any training/therapeutic program on dementia care in the past year
• Care-recipient residing in an institution

Study Plan

How is the study designed?

Design Details

• Primary Purpose: Treatment
• Allocation: Randomized
• Interventional Model: Parallel Assignment
• Masking: None (Open Label)

Number of Arms

2

Arms and Interventions

Participant Group / Arm	Intervention / Treatment
Active Comparator: Intervention; Caregiver training	Behavioral: Positive Dementia Caregiving in 30 Days; Based on an evidence-based face-to-face Benefit-Finding Intervention, a computer-delivered web-based program supporting 24/7 access without location restriction, is developed. It is a psychoeducation program with an emphasis on strengthening caregivers' coping capacity through skills training and developing a positive way of looking at caregiving challenges. The program consists of reading materials, illustrated texts, caregivers' testimonies, a chatbot, and several interactive apps to facilitate self-learning at the caregiver's own pace.; Other Names: Benefit-finding Intervention (Online Version)
Other: Waitlist control	Behavioral: Positive Dementia Caregiving in 30 Days; Based on an evidence-based face-to-face Benefit-Finding Intervention, a computer-delivered web-based program supporting 24/7 access without location restriction, is developed. It is a psychoeducation program with an emphasis on strengthening caregivers' coping capacity through skills training and developing a positive way of looking at caregiving challenges. The program consists of reading materials, illustrated texts, caregivers' testimonies, a chatbot, and several interactive apps to facilitate self-learning at the caregiver's own pace.; Other Names: Benefit-finding Intervention (Online Version)

What is the study measuring?

Primary Outcome Measures

Outcome Measure	Measure Description	Time Frame
Depressive symptoms	Patient Health Questionnaire-9; possible scores 0-27, higher = more depressed	baseline, 1 month, 2 months, 3 months

Secondary Outcome Measures

Outcome Measure	Measure Description	Time Frame
Anxiety symptoms	Profile of Mood States - Anxiety Subscale, brief version; possible scores 0-24, higher = more anxious	baseline, 1 month, 2 months, 3 months
Caregiver burden	Zarit Burden Interview, brief version; possible scores 0-24, higher = more burden	baseline, 1 month, 2 months, 3 months
Positive aspects of caregiving	Positive Aspects of Caregiving Scale, brief version; possible scores 6-30; higher = more positive aspects of caregiving	baseline, 1 month, 2 months, 3 months

Other Outcome Measures

Outcome Measure	Measure Description	Time Frame
Caregiving self-efficacy	Revised Scale for Caregiving Self-efficacy, brief version; possible scores 0-100, higher = more self-efficacy	3 weeks
Positive reappraisal coping	Brief-COPE, Positive Reframing Subscale; possible scores 2-8, higher = more use of positive reframing	3 weeks

Collaborators and Investigators

• Sponsor: Education University of Hong Kong
• Collaborators: The Hong Kong Polytechnic University
• Investigators: Principal Investigator: Sheung-Tak Cheng, PhD, The Education University of Hong Kong

Publications and helpful links

General Publications

• Cheng ST, Chan WC, Lam LCW. Long-Term Outcomes of the Benefit-Finding Group Intervention for Alzheimer Family Caregivers: A Cluster-Randomized Double-Blind Controlled Trial. Am J Geriatr Psychiatry. 2019 Sep;27(9):984-994. doi: 10.1016/j.jagp.2019.03.013. Epub 2019 Mar 26.
• Cheng ST, Mak EPM, Kwok T, Fung H, Lam LCW. Benefit-Finding Intervention Delivered Individually to Alzheimer Family Caregivers: Longer-Term Outcomes of a Randomized Double-Blind Controlled Trial. J Gerontol B Psychol Sci Soc Sci. 2020 Oct 16;75(9):1884-1893. doi: 10.1093/geronb/gbz118.

Study record dates

Study Major Dates

• Study Start (Actual): December 19, 2024
• Primary Completion (Actual): September 30, 2025
• Study Completion (Actual): September 30, 2025

Study Registration Dates

• First Submitted: May 7, 2024
• First Submitted That Met QC Criteria: May 7, 2024
• First Posted (Actual): May 10, 2024

Study Record Updates

• Last Update Posted (Estimated): October 1, 2025
• Last Update Submitted That Met QC Criteria: September 29, 2025
• Last Verified: September 1, 2025

More Information

Terms related to this study

• Keywords: Family caregiving
• Additional Relevant MeSH Terms: Brain Diseases; Central Nervous System Diseases; Nervous System Diseases; Mental Disorders; Neurocognitive Disorders; Dementia
• Other Study ID Numbers: 18622322

Plan for Individual participant data (IPD)

• Plan to Share Individual Participant Data (IPD)?: YES
• IPD Plan Description: Materials will be deposited onto a credible repository.
• IPD Sharing Time Frame: After study completion
• IPD Sharing Access Criteria: Open access
• IPD Sharing Supporting Information Type: STUDY_PROTOCOL; SAP; ICF; ANALYTIC_CODE

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