Feasibility and Acceptability of a Virtual “Dementia Awareness for Caregivers” Course in Brazil and India
Raquel Luiza Santos de Carvalho, Emily Fisher, Nirupama Natarajan, Esther K. Hui, Shreenila Venkatesan, Sridhar Vaitheswaran, Monisha Laksminarayanan, Paula Schimidt Brum, Renata Naylor-Batista, Elodie Bertrand, Daniel C. Mograbi, Cleusa P. Ferri, Charlotte Stoner, Aimee SpectorObjective:
To establish whether a virtual dementia awareness course is feasible for caregivers of people with dementia in Brazil and India.
Methods:
A pre/posttest single group, multisite feasibility study, mixed methods exploratory design was applied. Primary caregivers of people with dementia in Brazil and India took a 3 to 4-hour course adapted for online delivery, with 10 to 15 caregivers. Measurements encompassed self-reports of carer competence, attitudes to dementia, and caregiver burden; satisfaction questionnaire completed immediately after the intervention; open-ended questions at 1-month follow-up to assess if caregivers applied information to caregiving role; semistructured interviews about how the intervention changed caregivers’ behavior and attitudes towards dementia.
Results:
Of the 70 caregivers who received the intervention (Brazil = 34; India = 36), 54 (77.1%) completed postintervention outcomes, and 39 (55.7%) completed questionnaires at 1-month follow-up assessment. Significant improvements were observed in attitudes to dementia in both countries and self-perceived carer competence (in India) postintervention. The themes from the 9 semistructured interviews were: acceptability, feasibility, change of behavior/attitude, and suggestions for future sessions.
Conclusions:
Dementia awareness course was a feasible online intervention to improve dementia awareness among family caregivers across countries. It offers a standardized yet flexible methodology, with promising outcomes that need to be evaluated in a full randomized controlled trial.