AUTHOR=Liu Xiaofeng , Wang Shurui , Wei Lirong , Liu Yun , Bian Jiping , Wang Shen , Du Xian 

TITLE=The impact of empowerment theory-based health education on Alzheimer’s disease informal caregivers: a randomized controlled trial

JOURNAL=Frontiers in Public Health

VOLUME=Volume 12 - 2024

YEAR=2024

URL=https://www.frontiersin.org/journals/public-health/articles/10.3389/fpubh.2024.1393823

DOI=10.3389/fpubh.2024.1393823

ISSN=2296-2565

ABSTRACT=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).