JMIR Publications

ABSTRACT

Background:

About three quarters of people with dementia live in their own home, with help from family members and/or other unpaid carers such as friends or neighbours. Often, unpaid carers themselves experience negative consequences, such as stress or burden, and symptoms of depression or anxiety. Research has shown that these consequences can be alleviated by psychosocial and psychological interventions. Moreover, there are indications that those interventions can be effective when offered online.

Objective:

This paper describes the protocol of a randomized controlled trial to evaluate the effectiveness of iSupport, a minimal guided internet-based intervention to improve carers’ mental health and coping resources.

Methods:

A superiority two-arm randomized controlled trial comparing the effects of the online support programme with a waiting list control condition will be carried out in The Netherlands. The iSupport intervention was developed by the World Health Organization (WHO), and is based on cognitive behavioural principles. It has five main themes divided into 23 lessons. Carers can pick and choose which lessons they want to follow. We aim to recruit 200 unpaid carers. The experimental group (n=100) will be provided access to the intervention for three months while those in the waiting list group (n=100) will be granted access to the intervention after three months. Assessments will be conducted at baseline (t0), 3 months after baseline (post-intervention, t1), and six months after baseline (follow-up, t2) for the experimental group only. The primary outcome is perceived stress, measured by the Perceived Stress Scale (PSS). Secondary outcomes are symptoms of depression and anxiety, caregiver burden, sense of competence, self-efficacy, mastery, and carer’ attitude towards dementia and their person-centred approach (to what extent carers tailor the provided care to the interest, needs and history of the person with dementia).

Results:

The first baseline assessment occurred on January 22, 2019. The trial results are expected to demonstrate improved perceived stress among unpaid carers of people with dementia assigned to the intervention condition, alongside improvements in symptoms of depression, anxiety, caregiver burden and other coping resources outcomes when compared with unpaid carers assigned to the control condition.

Conclusions:

Online interventions have shown promising results to improve mental health in carers of people with dementia. Additionally, online interventions may overcome accessibility barriers. If successful, this intervention has important potential for implementation as public health intervention since costs and support by trained staff are minimal. Clinical Trial: Trial NL6417. Nederlands Trial Register. Registered 27 June 2017.