Improving the lives of ethnically diverse family carers and people living with dementia using digital media resources – Protocol for the Draw-Care randomised controlled trial

Antonia Thodis, Thu Ha Dang, Josefine Antoniades, Andrew S. Gilbert, Tuan Nguyen, Danijela Hlis, Mary Gurgone, Briony Dow, Claudia Cooper, Lily Dongxia Xiao, Nilmini Wickramasinghe, Nalika Ulapane, Mathew Varghese, Santosh Loganathan, Joanne Enticott, Duncan Mortimer, Bianca Brijnath

    Research output: Contribution to journalArticlepeer-review

    Abstract

    Objectives: Ethnically diverse family carers of people living with dementia (hereafter carers and people with dementia) experience more psychological distress than other carers. To reduce this inequality, culturally adapted, multilingual, evidence-based practical assistance is needed. This paper details the Draw-Care study protocol including a randomised control trial (RCT) to test the effectiveness of a digital intervention comprising a multilingual website, virtual assistant, animated films, and information, on the lives of carers and people with dementia in Australia. Methods: The Draw-Care intervention will be evaluated in a 12-week active waitlist parallel design RCT with 194 carers from Arabic, Cantonese, Greek, Hindi, Italian, Mandarin, Spanish, Tamil, and Vietnamese-speaking language groups. Our intervention was based on the World Health Organization's (WHO) iSupport Lite online carer support messages and was co-designed with carers, people with dementia, service providers, and clinicians. Culturally adapted multilingual digital resources were created in nine languages and English. Results: In Phase I (2022), six co-design workshops with stakeholders and interviews with people with dementia informed the development of the intervention which will be trialled and evaluated in Phases II and III (2023 and 2024). Conclusions: Digital media content is a novel approach to providing cost-effective access to health care information. This study protocol details the three study phases including the RCT of a co-designed, culturally adapted, multilingual, digital intervention for carers and people with dementia to advance the evidence in dementia and digital healthcare research and help meet the needs of carers and people with dementia in Australia and globally.

    Original languageEnglish
    Number of pages10
    JournalDigital Health
    Volume9
    DOIs
    Publication statusE-pub ahead of print - 13 Oct 2023

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