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ORIGINAL RESEARCH article

Front. Public Health
Sec. Aging and Public Health
Volume 12 - 2024 | doi: 10.3389/fpubh.2024.1393823
This article is part of the Research Topic Cognitive Impairment and Physical Function in Older Adults View all 26 articles

The Impact of Empowerment Theory-Based Health Education on Alzheimer's Disease Informal Caregivers: A Randomized Controlled Trial

Provisionally accepted
XIAOFENG LIU XIAOFENG LIU 1Shurui Wang Shurui Wang 2Lirong Wei Lirong Wei 1*Yun Liu Yun Liu 1*Jiping Bian Jiping Bian 1*Shen Wang Shen Wang 3*Xian Du Xian Du 4*
  • 1 Graduate School of Tianjin University of Traditional Chinese Medicine, Tianjin, China
  • 2 Peking Union Medical College Graduate School, Beijing, China
  • 3 Tianjin First Central Hospital, Tianjin, China
  • 4 Hubei University of Medicine, Shiyan, Hubei, China

The final, formatted version of the article will be published soon.

    Background: There is a lack of evidence regarding the effectiveness of empowerment healthy education for caregivers of Alzheimer's patients. Objective: To explore the effectiveness of the intervention of health education guided by empowerment theory on dementia knowledge, caregiving readiness, positive caregiving emotions, anxiety, and depression in informal Alzheimer's disease caregivers. Design: A single-blinded, randomized controlled trial. Setting: A teaching hospital in Tianjin, China. Participants: Eighty caregivers of Alzheimer's disease patients. Methods: Participants were recruited from the hospital and randomly assigned to either experimental or control group. The experimental group underwent a 12-weeks, one-to-one intervention of six session lasting 45 to 60 minutes each. The control group received conventional health education. Outcome measures included dementia knowledge, caregiver readiness (primary outcomes), positive caregiving emotions, anxiety, and depression (secondary outcomes). Results: After 12 weeks, the intervention group exhibited significantly higher levels of dementia knowledge, caregiver readiness, and positive caregiving emotions compared with the control group. Furthermore, levels of hospitalization-related anxiety and depression were lower in the intervention group. All study results of this study showed statistically significant differences (P < 0.05). Discussion: Empowerment theory-based health education appears to be an effective intervention for improving caregiver and readiness to care for caregivers of Alzheimer's disease individuals. The intervention may help reduce caregivers' anxiety and depression levels.Alzheimer's disease (AD) is highly prevalent among older adults and is characterized by irreversible and progressive symptoms (1). These include cognitive dysfunction, decreased ability to perform daily self-care, and psycho-behavioral symptoms as the manifestations (2). The disease can be classified into different syndromic groups such as amnestic AD, posterior cortical atrophy (PCA), and logogenic variant primary progressive aphasia (lvPPA) (3-5). Currently, the exact pathogenesis of AD remains unclear, making its prevention and treatment challenging (6).

    Keywords: Alzheimer's disease, Caregivers, empowerment, Dementia disease knowledge, Education -

    Received: 29 Feb 2024; Accepted: 16 Aug 2024.

    Copyright: © 2024 LIU, Wang, Wei, Liu, Bian, Wang and Du. This is an open-access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License (CC BY). The use, distribution or reproduction in other forums is permitted, provided the original author(s) or licensor are credited and that the original publication in this journal is cited, in accordance with accepted academic practice. No use, distribution or reproduction is permitted which does not comply with these terms.

    * Correspondence:
    Lirong Wei, Graduate School of Tianjin University of Traditional Chinese Medicine, Tianjin, 300193, China
    Yun Liu, Graduate School of Tianjin University of Traditional Chinese Medicine, Tianjin, 300193, China
    Jiping Bian, Graduate School of Tianjin University of Traditional Chinese Medicine, Tianjin, 300193, China
    Shen Wang, Tianjin First Central Hospital, Tianjin, China
    Xian Du, Hubei University of Medicine, Shiyan, 442000, Hubei, China

    Disclaimer: All claims expressed in this article are solely those of the authors and do not necessarily represent those of their affiliated organizations, or those of the publisher, the editors and the reviewers. Any product that may be evaluated in this article or claim that may be made by its manufacturer is not guaranteed or endorsed by the publisher.