Accepted for/Published in: JMIR Research Protocols
Date Submitted: Apr 14, 2026
Open Peer Review Period: Apr 14, 2026 - May 5, 2026
Date Accepted: May 28, 2026
(closed for review but you can still tweet)
Warning: This is an author submission that is not peer-reviewed or edited.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.
Using Network Canvas to Measure Caregiver Networks of Older Adults with Alzheimer's Disease: Design and Protocol
ABSTRACT
Background:
Patients with Alzheimer’s disease (AD) commonly rely on family caregivers for daily function. Research shows caregiver-person with memory loss (PWML) relationships have important effects on health and well-being for both caregivers and PWML. However, most studies rely on a single caregiver-PWML dyad as the unit of analysis, thereby neglecting the broader network of caregivers who collectively shape care experiences and outcomes.
Objective:
This protocol paper describes the conceptual and methodological framework for a study of caregiver networks. Study aims are to measure and map the social networks of caregivers of PWML while examining population heterogeneity in caregiver relationships and identify network-based predictors of well-being for both caregivers and PWML.
Methods:
Our team will conduct a large multi-location (IL, IN, HI) study of 200 PWML caregiver networks supported by data from PWML and their caregivers. Networks will be collected using our team’s cutting edge Network Canvas software tools and analyzed using both quantitative and mixed methods.
Results:
This study was awarded in August 2023 and is currently in its second year of data collection.
Conclusions:
This project advances PWML caregiver research by operationalizing a scalable and replicable approach to measuring caregiver networks. The ability to easily measure and identify structural features of caregiver systems helps identify predictors of caregiver experiences and outcomes, and provides large benefits for the caregiver-PWML research community.
Citation
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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.