title: Conceptualization of an evidence-based smartphone innovation for caregivers and persons living with dementia.
abstract: Recent statistics released by Alzheimer's Disease International has highlighted how prevalent dementia will become in the next couple of years. Along with the increased incidence of individuals being diagnosed with dementia, there has also been an increment in the number of informal carers for people living with dementia. A recent report highlighted that in Australia, there are an estimated of 200,000 informal carers as of 2011. Caring for people who are living with dementia is not an easy task. Previous studies have highlighted that as much as 65% of caregivers do experience symptoms suggestive of depressive symptoms in the process of care. With the rapid advances in technology, it is of no surprise that information technology and its related innovations have been used in dementia care. A review of the existing literature shows that much of these innovations are focused on the care of patients affiliated with dementia. However, clearly interventions focusing on the needs of the dementia cohort of patient are limited. There are currently more emerging studies demonstrating the efficacy of web-based interventional toolkits for carers who are caring for individuals with dementia. Whilst there are previous studies demonstrating the effectiveness of smartphone interventions for dementia patients, there remains a paucity of smartphone based interventions for caregivers who are living with people with dementia. This technical note describes the conceptualization of an evidence based smartphone intervention for patients living with dementia, as well as for carers of these patients.
authors.affiliation: Biomedical Global Institute of Healthcare Research and Technology, National University of Singapore, Singapore.
authors.forename: Melvyn W B
authors.initials: MW
authors.lastname: Zhang
authors.affiliation: School of Nursing and Midwifery, University of Newcastle, Newcastle, NSW, Australia.
authors.forename: Sally
authors.initials: S
authors.lastname: Chan
authors.affiliation: School of Nursing and Midwifery, University of Newcastle, Newcastle, NSW, Australia.
authors.forename: Olivia
authors.initials: O
authors.lastname: Wynne
authors.affiliation: School of Nursing and Midwifery, University of Newcastle, Newcastle, NSW, Australia.
authors.forename: Sarah
authors.initials: S
authors.lastname: Jeong
authors.affiliation: School of Nursing and Midwifery, University of Newcastle, Newcastle, NSW, Australia.
authors.forename: Sharyn
authors.initials: S
authors.lastname: Hunter
authors.affiliation: School of Nursing and Midwifery, University of Newcastle, Newcastle, NSW, Australia.
authors.forename: Amada
authors.initials: A
authors.lastname: Wilson
authors.affiliation: Department of Psychological Medicine, National University Healthcare Systems, Singapore.
authors.forename: Roger C M
authors.initials: RC
authors.lastname: Ho
mesh_terms: D017028:Caregivers / Q000523:psychology*; D003704:Dementia / Q000523:psychology*; D040362:Geographic Information Systems; D006266:Health Education; D006801:Humans; D063731:Mobile Applications; D012648:Self Care; D000068997:Smartphone; D012944:Social Support
keywords: Smartphone; applications; caregivers burden; caregiving; dementia; mobile phone