Rush Research Team
Hyejin Kim (PI)
Olimpia Paun (Co-I)
Jessica Bishop-Royse (Co-I)
Manju Daniel (Co-I)
Project Period: 01/01/2025 – 12/31/2027
Funding Source/number: Alzheimer’s Association/Alzheimer’s Association Research Grant to Promote Diversity (AARGD-24-1306664)
Abstract
The rising prevalence of Alzheimer’s disease and related dementias (ADRD) has resulted in more than 11 million individuals assuming the role of unpaid caregiving for their family members or friends with ADRD. This unpaid caregiving often leads to elevated stress levels, contributing to mental health issues such as depressive and anxiety symptoms. Although Asian American ADRD family caregivers show higher emotional distress compared to other ethnic groups, Korean Americans, the fifth largest Asian group in the US, are often underrepresented in ADRD caregiving research. This underrepresentation may lead to mental health disparities such as increased stress and symptoms of depression and anxiety in this population. Building on the team’s preliminary work, which found increased stress and culturally-specific support needs among Korean American ADRD family caregivers, the overall goal of the proposed study is to culturally adapt iCare (NIH/NIA R44-AG032762), a stress reduction intervention, for Korean-American ADRD family caregivers (Korean version of iCare; K-iCare) providing care at home. Employing the NIH Stage I Model for Behavioral Intervention Development, the specific aims are twofold. First, we will culturally adapt iCare for Korean American ADRD family caregivers (Stage IA). Through an iterative process of modification and refinement involving collaboration with key stakeholders (e.g., health service workers serving the local Korean American senior community and iCare developers), we will finalize K-iCare. Second, we will assess the feasibility (e.g., rates of recruitment and enrollment), acceptability (e.g., satisfaction with K-iCare), and preliminary effects (stress, symptoms of depression and anxiety, and levels of ADRD knowledge) of K-iCare compared with an education-only condition (Stage IB). We will primarily recruit participants from two non-profit organizations by leveraging our established relationships with these organizations. One is a senior community center specifically serving Korean Americans, while the other acts as a nationwide hub connecting research projects with Asian American community-based organizations. This proposed study will be a pre-post, randomized controlled trial with two conditions: K-iCare and education-only conditions, each potentially having up to 36 participants. K-iCare will be a synchronous online small group intervention led by the principal investigator, who is fluent in both English and Korean and has a deep understanding of both cultures. We will use a directed content analysis method (for qualitative data) for focus groups. Independent t-tests (for quantitative data) will be performed to assess the preliminary effects of K-iCare. Effect sizes will also be calculated. The proposed study will yield preliminary data to guide a subsequent NIH application for a clinical trial aimed at further refining and testing the effects of K-iCare on the health outcomes of Korean American ADRD family caregivers.