Currently submitted to: JMIR Formative Research
Date Submitted: Oct 7, 2025
Open Peer Review Period: Oct 8, 2025 - Dec 3, 2025
(closed for review but you can still tweet)
NOTE: This is an unreviewed Preprint
Warning: This is a unreviewed preprint (What is a preprint?). Readers are warned that the document has not been peer-reviewed by expert/patient reviewers or an academic editor, may contain misleading claims, and is likely to undergo changes before final publication, if accepted, or may have been rejected/withdrawn (a note "no longer under consideration" will appear above).
Peer review me: Readers with interest and expertise are encouraged to sign up as peer-reviewer, if the paper is within an open peer-review period (in this case, a "Peer Review Me" button to sign up as reviewer is displayed above). All preprints currently open for review are listed here. Outside of the formal open peer-review period we encourage you to tweet about the preprint.
Citation: Please cite this preprint only for review purposes or for grant applications and CVs (if you are the author).
Final version: If our system detects a final peer-reviewed "version of record" (VoR) published in any journal, a link to that VoR will appear below. Readers are then encourage to cite the VoR instead of this preprint.
Settings: If you are the author, you can login and change the preprint display settings, but the preprint URL/DOI is supposed to be stable and citable, so it should not be removed once posted.
Submit: To post your own preprint, simply submit to any JMIR journal, and choose the appropriate settings to expose your submitted version as preprint.
Warning: This is an author submission that is not peer-reviewed or edited.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.
Use of the Roadmap Positive Activity App in Daily Life Among Dementia Caregivers: Evidence of Feasibility and Acceptability
ABSTRACT
Background:
Addressing the needs of at-risk dementia caregivers and their care recipients is an urgent public health priority. Thus, it is imperative to identify modifiable factors that influence caregiver and care recipient mental health to target in personalized interventions.
Objective:
The purpose of the present pilot study was to examine the feasibility and acceptability of an mHealth positive activity intervention, the Roadmap app, which has demonstrated effectiveness among other caregiver populations but has not been examined among dementia caregivers.
Methods:
A total of 20 dementia caregiver-care recipient dyads were recruited to participate in a 14-day study, during which caregivers were prompted to engage in Roadmap positive activities twice a day, caregivers completed mobile surveys every night, and both dyad members were asked to wear Fitbit® devices. Caregivers also completed a feasibility and acceptability survey at the end of the study. Data were analyzed using descriptive statistics and 2-level multilevel linear models with days nested in participants
Results:
The Roadmap app was highly feasible and acceptable among this population. The caregivers participated in a high number of positive activities, completed almost 100% of their nightly surveys, and all caregivers and 16 of their care recipients wore Fitbit® devices. Participants rated the app as easy to use and acceptable. Preliminary results also indicate that using the app is associated with improved mood and better mental health among caregivers and care recipients in daily life over the 14-day period during which they were enrolled in the study.
Conclusions:
Overall, this pilot study shows that the Roadmap app is a feasible and acceptable intervention among dementia caregivers, and it should be tested in larger clinical trials.
Citation
Request queued. Please wait while the file is being generated. It may take some time.
Copyright
© The authors. All rights reserved. This is a privileged document currently under peer-review/community review (or an accepted/rejected manuscript). Authors have provided JMIR Publications with an exclusive license to publish this preprint on it's website for review and ahead-of-print citation purposes only. While the final peer-reviewed paper may be licensed under a cc-by license on publication, at this stage authors and publisher expressively prohibit redistribution of this draft paper other than for review purposes.