Accepted for/Published in: JMIR Formative Research
Date Submitted: Jun 4, 2025
Date Accepted: Aug 11, 2025
Warning: This is an author submission that is not peer-reviewed or edited. Preprints - unless they show as "accepted" - should not be relied on to guide clinical practice or health-related behavior and should not be reported in news media as established information.
How Rural-Dwelling Caregivers of People Living with Dementia use Technology to Support Caregiving: A Qualitative Study
ABSTRACT
Background:
Family caregivers of people living with dementia who live in rural areas face challenges unique from their urban counterparts. Technology is a promising but under-utilized method for delivering interventions to rural caregivers.
Objective:
The purpose of the present study was to describe the technologies used by rural caregivers of people living with dementia, how these caregivers use technology to support caregiving, and the barriers and facilitators they face in using technology.
Methods:
We conducted virtual, semi-structured interviews with rural caregivers of people living with dementia. The objective of the primary study was to understand how caregivers access support, including the types of support used, strategies used to find support, and any unmet support needs. The present project was a secondary analysis focused exclusively on caregivers’ technology use. Summative-, content-, and thematic analyses were used to understand patterns of technology use and barriers and facilitators to its use.
Results:
Caregivers (N=19) were 73.7% female and their mean age was 66.4 (SD=10.1). The five most frequently endorsed technologies were phones for calling (100%) and texting (73.7%); websites (89% of sample); television/movies (80% of sample); and e-mail (68.4%). Technology provided the following types of support: informational (100% of caregivers), emotional (68.4%), instrumental (63.2%), entertainment (52.7%), safety (31.6%), and caregiver personal health (21.1%). Thematic analysis yielded four characteristics of caregivers that facilitated technology use, including access to technology, technology savviness, preference for technology, and having a technology broker. In addition, analyses yielded four characteristics of technology that facilitated technology use, including appeal, efficiency, ease of use, and trustworthiness.
Conclusions:
All rural caregivers in the present study used technology to access caregiving support, which suggests that this population is prepared for remote interventions. Our findings can be used to help determine optimal delivery and content of these interventions and to instruct interventionists on caregiver and technology characteristics that may present barriers to uptake. Rural caregivers may be accepting of interventions delivered through text, websites, and video, particularly those that focus on meeting informational and instrumental needs. Clinical Trial: N/A
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