VICA: A Virtual Care Assistant for Dementia Caregivers (VICA)
18. august 2026 oppdatert av: MALAZ BOUSTANI, Indiana University
Virtual Informal Care Assistant for Alzheimer'S-related Dementia (VICA): A Pilot Randomized Controlled Trial
This pilot randomized controlled trial evaluates the feasibility and preliminary efficacy of VICA, an AI-powered virtual care assistant that delivers evidence-based education, symptom monitoring, and coaching to informal caregivers of people living with Alzheimer's disease and related dementias (ADRD).
Sixty caregiver-patient dyads will be randomized 1:1 to VICA or an attention-control education app (Dementia Guide Expert) for 3 months.
The study will assess recruitment, VICA acceptance/usability, and engagement (Aim 1), and estimate effect sizes for reducing patient behavioral and psychological symptoms of dementia (BPSD) and caregiver distress (Aim 2).
Studieoversikt
Status
Har ikke rekruttert ennå
Intervensjon / Behandling
Detaljert beskrivelse
VICA is a customized large-language-model-driven avatar that provides speech-to-speech and text conversational support grounded in the ABC (Aging Brain Care) collaborative dementia care model and the HABC-Monitor assessment.
Informal caregivers randomized to VICA are encouraged to use the platform 3 times per week for approximately 20 minutes over 3 months; control participants use the Dementia Guide Expert education-only app on the same schedule.
Outcomes include trial feasibility metrics (recruitment, retention, VICA acceptance via TAM-PEOU, usability via SUS, usage/engagement) and preliminary effect-size estimates for the Neuropsychiatric Inventory (NPI) total score (patient BPSD), NPI-Distress score, PHQ-9 (caregiver depression), and GAD-7 (caregiver anxiety), collected at baseline and months 1, 2, and 3.
Studietype
Intervensjonell
Registrering (Antatt)
120
Fase
- Ikke aktuelt
Kontakter og plasseringer
Denne delen inneholder kontaktinformasjon for de som utfører studien, og informasjon om hvor denne studien blir utført.
Studiesteder
-
-
Indiana
-
Indianapolis, Indiana, Forente stater, 46202
- Eskanazi Health
-
-
Deltakelseskriterier
Forskere ser etter personer som passer til en bestemt beskrivelse, kalt kvalifikasjonskriterier. Noen eksempler på disse kriteriene er en persons generelle helsetilstand eller tidligere behandlinger.
Kvalifikasjonskriterier
Alder som er kvalifisert for studier
- Voksen
- Eldre voksen
Tar imot friske frivillige
Nei
Beskrivelse
Inclusion Criteria: Patient
- Age ≥ 65 years
- Community-dwelling
- Diagnosed with ADRD
- Clinical notes indicate behavioral and psychological symptoms of dementia (BPSD) Inclusion Criteria: Informal Caregiver
- Age ≥ 21 years
- Self-identified informal caregiver of a community-dwelling patient diagnosed with ADRD
- Provides ≥ 10 hours/week of care to the patient with ADRD
- Regular access to a computer and/or smart device with internet
- English-literate; assessed as "adequate" on the Single Item Literacy Screener
Exclusion Criteria: Patient
- Life expectancy less than 6 months
Exclusion Criteria: Informal Caregiver
- Clinician-reported cognitive impairment
- Clinician-reported severe mental illness or substance use disorder
- Clinician-reported life expectancy of less than 6 months
- Unable to provide informed consent
Studieplan
Denne delen gir detaljer om studieplanen, inkludert hvordan studien er utformet og hva studien måler.
Hvordan er studiet utformet?
Designdetaljer
- Primært formål: Støttende omsorg
- Tildeling: Randomisert
- Intervensjonsmodell: Parallell tildeling
- Masking: Ingen (Open Label)
Våpen og intervensjoner
Deltakergruppe / Arm |
Intervensjon / Behandling |
|---|---|
|
Eksperimentell: Experimental: VICA
Access to the VICA AI-powered avatar platform for 3 months; caregivers encouraged to engage 3x/week for ~20 minutes per session.
VICA delivers education, resource information, and symptom-monitoring (HABC-Monitor) grounded in the ABC collaborative dementia care model via a retrieval-augmented generation (RAG) system.
|
An AI-powered avatar delivering conversational, speech-to-speech and text-based education, resource information, and symptom-monitoring support to informal caregivers of patients with Alzheimer's disease and related dementias (ADRD), grounded in the ABC collaborative dementia care model via a retrieval-augmented generation system.
|
|
Aktiv komparator: Active Comparator: Attention Control
Access to Dementia Guide Expert, an existing free, education-only BPSD mobile app (ENGAGE-IL initiative, University of Illinois at Chicago), used on the same 3x/week, ~20 minute schedule for 3 months.
No interactive coaching, assessment, or personalized response.
|
Access to Dementia Guide Expert, an existing free, education-only BPSD mobile app (ENGAGE-IL initiative, University of Illinois at Chicago), used on the same 3x/week, ~20 minute schedule for 3 months.
No interactive coaching, assessment, or personalized response.
|
Hva måler studien?
Primære resultatmål
Resultatmål |
Tiltaksbeskrivelse |
Tidsramme |
|---|---|---|
|
Neuropsychiatric Inventory (NPI) total score
Tidsramme: Baseline, 1, 2, and 3 months
|
A 12-domain caregiver-informant-rated measure of patient behavioral and psychological symptoms of dementia.
Each domain is scored as frequency (1-4) times severity (1-3) if present, or 0 if absent.
Domain scores are summed for a Total Score ranging 0-144; higher scores indicate more frequent and/or severe symptoms.
|
Baseline, 1, 2, and 3 months
|
|
Neuropsychiatric Inventory-Distress (NPI-D) Scale
Tidsramme: Baseline, 1, 2, and 3 months
|
Derived from the same 12-domain NPI interview.
For each domain in which a symptom is present, the caregiver rates how emotionally distressing that behavior is to them, from 0 (not at all) to 5 (very severely).
Ratings are summed across domains for a total score of 0-60; higher scores indicate greater caregiver distress.
|
Baseline, 1, 2, and 3 months
|
|
Assessment completion rate
Tidsramme: Computed at 3 months
|
Computed at 3 months
|
|
|
Recruitment rate
Tidsramme: up to 15 months
|
Recruitment rate computed monthly as # approached, # agreeing, and # consenting, tracked continuously throughout the accrual period. |
up to 15 months
|
|
Technology Acceptance Model-Perceived Ease of Use (TAM-PEOU)
Tidsramme: Months 1, 2, 3
|
A 6-item caregiver self-report measure of perceived ease of use, each item rated on a 7-point scale from Extremely Disagree to Extremely Agree.
Item scores are summed for a total ranging 6-42; higher scores indicate greater perceived ease of use.
Intervention-arm participants rate the VICA platform; control-arm participants rate the Dementia Guide Expert app, using parallel-worded versions of the same instrument.
|
Months 1, 2, 3
|
|
System Usability Scale (SUS)
Tidsramme: Months 1, 2, 3
|
A 10-item caregiver self-report measure of perceived usability, rated on a 5-point scale from Strongly Disagree to Strongly Agree, with alternating positively- and negatively-worded items.
Using standard SUS scoring, item responses are converted and summed to a total ranging 0-100; higher scores indicate better usability.
Intervention-arm participants rate the VICA platform; control-arm participants rate the Dementia Guide Expert app, using parallel-worded versions of the same instrument.
|
Months 1, 2, 3
|
|
VICA usage
Tidsramme: up to 12 weeks
|
Server-recorded log-ins, session progress/completion, and conversation content, collected from the VICA intervention arm only.
Not applicable to the attention control arm, which does not use the VICA platform.
|
up to 12 weeks
|
Sekundære resultatmål
Resultatmål |
Tiltaksbeskrivelse |
Tidsramme |
|---|---|---|
|
Patient Health Questionnaire-9 (PHQ-9)
Tidsramme: Baseline, 1, 2, and 3 months
|
A 9-item caregiver-reported measure of depressive symptom severity.
Scored 0-27; higher scores indicate more severe depression.
|
Baseline, 1, 2, and 3 months
|
|
Generalized Anxiety Disorder 7-item Scale (GAD-7)
Tidsramme: Baseline, 1, 2, and 3 months
|
A 7-item caregiver self-report measure of anxiety symptom severity, scored 0-3 per item and summed for a total ranging 0-21; higher scores indicate more severe anxiety.
|
Baseline, 1, 2, and 3 months
|
Samarbeidspartnere og etterforskere
Det er her du vil finne personer og organisasjoner som er involvert i denne studien.
Sponsor
Samarbeidspartnere
Etterforskere
- Hovedetterforsker: Malaz Boustani, MD, MPH, Indiana University School of Medicine, Center for Health Innovation and Implementation Science
Studierekorddatoer
Disse datoene sporer fremdriften for innsending av studieposter og sammendragsresultater til ClinicalTrials.gov. Studieposter og rapporterte resultater gjennomgås av National Library of Medicine (NLM) for å sikre at de oppfyller spesifikke kvalitetskontrollstandarder før de legges ut på det offentlige nettstedet.
Studer hoveddatoer
Studiestart (Antatt)
17. august 2026
Primær fullføring (Antatt)
28. februar 2027
Studiet fullført (Antatt)
30. mai 2027
Datoer for studieregistrering
Først innsendt
12. august 2026
Først innsendt som oppfylte QC-kriteriene
18. august 2026
Først lagt ut (Faktiske)
21. august 2026
Oppdateringer av studieposter
Sist oppdatering lagt ut (Faktiske)
21. august 2026
Siste oppdatering sendt inn som oppfylte QC-kriteriene
18. august 2026
Sist bekreftet
1. august 2026
Mer informasjon
Begreper knyttet til denne studien
Nøkkelord
Ytterligere relevante MeSH-vilkår
Andre studie-ID-numre
- IRB28255
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