Telephone-Coached Sleep Bibliotherapy for Dementia Caregivers

September 14, 2026 updated by: The Hong Kong Polytechnic University

Telephone-Coached Sleep Bibliotherapy for Informal Caregivers of People With Dementia: A Randomized Controlled Trial

Sleep disturbances are common among informal caregivers of people with dementia and can negatively affect their physical and psychological well-being. This randomized controlled trial aims to evaluate the effectiveness of an 8-week telephone-coached sleep bibliotherapy program in improving sleep quality among informal caregivers of people with dementia. Participants will be randomly assigned to either a sleep bibliotherapy intervention group or an educational booklet control group. Outcomes including sleep quality, caregiving appraisal, dysfunctional beliefs about sleep, emotional distress, neuropsychiatric symptoms of care recipients, and quality of life will be assessed at baseline, immediately post-intervention, and 3 months post-intervention.

Study Overview

Status

Recruiting

Conditions

Intervention / Treatment

Detailed Description

This study is a two-arm randomized controlled trial designed to evaluate the effectiveness of telephone-coached sleep bibliotherapy for informal caregivers of people with dementia.

A total of 120 eligible caregivers will be recruited and randomly assigned to either the intervention group or the control group. The intervention group will receive an 8-week telephone-coached sleep bibliotherapy program.

The control group will receive an educational booklet containing general health information and weekly check-in calls. Both groups will continue receiving usual community services.

Data will be collected at baseline, immediately after the intervention, and 3 months after the intervention. The primary outcome is sleep quality measured using the Pittsburgh Sleep Quality Index (PSQI). Secondary outcomes include caregiving appraisal, dysfunctional beliefs and attitudes about sleep, emotional distress, neuropsyatric symptoms of care recipients, and quality of life.

The findings will provide evidence regarding the effectiveness of a low-cost and easily disseminated intervention for improving sleep and well-being among caregivers of people with dementia.

Study Type

Interventional

Enrollment (Estimated)

120

Phase

  • Not Applicable

Contacts and Locations

This section provides the contact details for those conducting the study, and information on where this study is being conducted.

Study Contact

Study Contact Backup

  • Name: Mingyue HU, PhD
  • Phone Number: +852 54131253

Study Locations

Participation Criteria

Researchers look for people who fit a certain description, called eligibility criteria. Some examples of these criteria are a person's general health condition or prior treatments.

Eligibility Criteria

Ages Eligible for Study

  • Adult
  • Older Adult

Accepts Healthy Volunteers

No

Description

Inclusion criteria: a) aged 18 years or older; b) provide unpaid care to a family member with dementia; c) living with the patient or actively involved in the patient's care daily for a minimum of 4 hours/day for at least 6 months; d) endorse one or more sleep problems; e) having the sleep problem with an average of 3 or more nights per week during the past month; d) taking no medication for sleep or stabilized on current medication for at least 6 weeks; e) could be contacted by phone.

Exclusion criteria: a) report a prior diagnosis of primary sleep disorder (e.g., sleep apnoea); b) have a severe chronic illness that could cause their sleep problems (e.g., emphysema); c) receive medical, psychological, or psychiatric treatment for sleep disturbance or depression; d) have cognitive impairment; e) be included in another interventional study.

Study Plan

This section provides details of the study plan, including how the study is designed and what the study is measuring.

How is the study designed?

Design Details

  • Primary Purpose: Supportive Care
  • Allocation: Randomized
  • Interventional Model: Parallel Assignment
  • Masking: Single

Arms and Interventions

Participant Group / Arm
Intervention / Treatment
Experimental: Telephone-Coached Sleep Bibliotherapy
Participants receive an 8-week sleep bibliotherapy program consisting of a sleep bibliotherapy manual, cartoon videos, and weekly telephone coaching. The intervention integrates dementia caregiving education with behavioral and cognitive strategies for improving sleep.
Behavioral: Telephone-Coached Sleep Bibliotherapy
An 8-week behavioral intervention consisting of a sleep bibliotherapy manual, cartoon videos, and weekly telephone coaching. The intervention integrates dementia caregiving education with behavioral and cognitive strategies to improve sleep among informal caregivers of people with dementia.
Active Comparator: Educational Booklet
Participants receive an educational booklet containing general health information and weekly check-in telephone calls. The booklet does not include therapeutic sleep intervention components.
Behavioral: Educational Booklet
Participants receive an educational booklet containing general health information and weekly check-in telephone calls.

What is the study measuring?

Primary Outcome Measures

Outcome Measure
Measure Description
Time Frame
Sleep Quality
Time Frame: Baseline, immediately post-intervention (8 weeks), and 3 months post-intervention
Sleep quality will be assessed using the Pittsburgh Sleep Quality Index (PSQI). Higher scores indicate poorer sleep quality.
Baseline, immediately post-intervention (8 weeks), and 3 months post-intervention

Other Outcome Measures

Outcome Measure
Measure Description
Time Frame
Caregiving Appraisal
Time Frame: Baseline, immediately post-intervention (8 weeks), and 3 months post-intervention
The Chinese version of the Caregiving Appraisal Scale will be used. This is a 5-point Likert scale with 26 items and four subscales (caregiving satisfaction, caregiving mastery, subjective caregiving burden, and caregiving impact).
Baseline, immediately post-intervention (8 weeks), and 3 months post-intervention
Dysfunctional beliefs and attitudes about sleep
Time Frame: Baseline, immediately post-intervention (8 weeks), and 3 months post-intervention
It will be measured using the Chinse version of 16-item Dysfunctional Beliefs and Attitudes about Sleep scale (DBAS-16). DBAS-16 is a 16-item scale.
Baseline, immediately post-intervention (8 weeks), and 3 months post-intervention
Emotional distress
Time Frame: Baseline, immediately post-intervention (8 weeks), and 3 months post-intervention
It will be measured with the stress, anxiety, and depression scales (DASS-21).
Baseline, immediately post-intervention (8 weeks), and 3 months post-intervention
Patient neuropsychiatric symptoms
Time Frame: Baseline, immediately post-intervention (8 weeks), and 3 months post-intervention
The Neuropsychiatric Inventory (NPI) will be used to measure neuropsychiatric symptoms. NPI evaluates 12 common neuropsychiatric disturbances in dementia.
Baseline, immediately post-intervention (8 weeks), and 3 months post-intervention
Dyadic quality of life
Time Frame: Baseline, immediately post-intervention (8 weeks), and 3 months post-intervention
It will be measured with the Quality of Life-Alzheimer's Disease Scale (QOL-AD), which will be separately rated by caregivers and care recipients. It is a 13-item, 4-point Likert scale that measures the quality of life for adults w
Baseline, immediately post-intervention (8 weeks), and 3 months post-intervention

Collaborators and Investigators

This is where you will find people and organizations involved with this study.

Sponsor

The Hong Kong Polytechnic University

Publications and helpful links

The person responsible for entering information about the study voluntarily provides these publications. These may be about anything related to the study.

General Publications

Study record dates

These dates track the progress of study record and summary results submissions to ClinicalTrials.gov. Study records and reported results are reviewed by the National Library of Medicine (NLM) to make sure they meet specific quality control standards before being posted on the public website.

Study Major Dates

Study Start (Actual)

August 1, 2026

Primary Completion (Estimated)

December 1, 2028

Study Completion (Estimated)

December 1, 2028

Study Registration Dates

First Submitted

September 14, 2026

First Submitted That Met QC Criteria

September 14, 2026

First Posted (Actual)

September 17, 2026

Study Record Updates

Last Update Posted (Actual)

September 17, 2026

Last Update Submitted That Met QC Criteria

September 14, 2026

Last Verified

August 1, 2026

More Information

Terms related to this study

Keywords

Additional Relevant MeSH Terms

Other Study ID Numbers

  • P0057423

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

This information was retrieved directly from the website clinicaltrials.gov without any changes. If you have any requests to change, remove or update your study details, please contact register@clinicaltrials.gov. As soon as a change is implemented on clinicaltrials.gov, this will be updated automatically on our website as well.

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