A text message intervention to support latino dementia family caregivers (CuidaTEXT): feasibility study

ABSTRACT

Objectives

To test the feasibility, acceptability, and preliminary efficacy of CuidaTEXT: a bidirectional text message intervention to support Latino dementia family caregivers.

Methods

CuidaTEXT is a six-month, bilingual intervention tailored to caregiver needs (e.g., education, problem-solving, resources). We used convenience sampling and reached 31 potential participants via clinics, registries, community promotion, and online advertising. We enrolled 24 Latino caregivers in a one-arm trial and assessed feasibility, acceptability, and preliminary efficacy within six months.

Results

None of the participants unsubscribed from CuidaTEXT and 83.3% completed the follow up survey. Most participants (85.7%) reported reading most text messages thoroughly. All participants reported being very or extremely satisfied with the intervention. Participants reported that CuidaTEXT helped a lot (vs not at all, a little, or somehow) in caring for their care recipient (71.4%; n = 15), for themselves (66.7%; n = 14), and understanding more about dementia (85.7%; n = 18). Compared to baseline, at six months caregiver behavioral symptom distress (0–60) decreased from 19.8 to 12.0 and depression (0–30) from 8.8 to 5.4 (p < .05).

Conclusions

CuidaTEXT demonstrated high levels of feasibility, acceptability, and preliminary efficacy among Latino caregivers.

Clinical implications

CuidaTEXT’s feasibility and potential for widespread implementation holds promise in supporting Latino caregivers of people with dementia.

KEYWORDS:

• Latinos
• mHealth
• dementia
• caregiving

Acknowledgments

Dr. Perales-Puchalt thanks the national and local organizations that have partnered with him to conduct present and past research since 2015. Dr. Perales-Puchalt also thanks Emma C. Green for her assistance in editing the language of the manuscript. The research team thanks research participants included in all stages of this research as well as anyone who has contributed directly and indirectly to this research. We also thank the UsAgainstAlzheimer’s A-List and the Alzheimer’s Association’s TrialMatch for sharing the opportunity to participate in CuidaTEXT with their registries and website visitors. The ideas and opinions expressed herein are those of the authors alone, and endorsement by the authors’ institutions or the funding agency is not intended and should not be inferred.

Clinical implications

• Latino family caregivers of individuals with dementia face many barriers to caregiver support access that may be alleviated through culturally tailored text message interventions.

• CuidaTEXT, a text message intervention for family caregiver support, has high feasibility, acceptability, and preliminary efficacy and has potential for widespread implementation.

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the author(s).

Ethical principles

The authors affirm having followed professional ethical guidelines in preparing this work. These guidelines include obtaining informed consent from human participants, maintaining ethical treatment and respect for the rights of human or animal participants, and ensuring the privacy of participants and their data, such as ensuring that individual participants cannot be identified in reported results or from publicly available original or archival data.

Additional information

Funding

This work was supported by Grants [R21 AG065755], [K01 MD014177], and [P30 AG072973] from the NIH.Role of the Funders/SponsorsNone of the funders or sponsors of this research had any role in the design and conduct of the study; collection, management, analysis, and interpretation of data; preparation, review, or approval of the manuscript; or decision to submit the manuscript for publicatio.