Grant: Project Grant - PA: Patient-Oriented Research: Early-Career Investigator

Family and friend caregivers, two-thirds of whom are women, play an essential role in supporting the 500,000 Canadians living with dementia. Interventions are available to support family and friend caregivers experiencing adverse mental health outcomes such as burden or depression related to their caregiving role (e.g. exercise, psychotherapy, education, respite care); however, many of these interventions have not been directly compared in randomized trials. This makes it challenging for caregivers, clinicians, and policy makers to know which interventions will work the best in reducing these adverse mental health outcomes for family and friend caregivers. We will review the literature and identify all randomized trials describing the efficacy of in person and virtual interventions (e.g. by telephone or videoconference) for improving: symptoms of burden, distress, depression, anxiety, and loneliness; quality of life; and knowledge and caregiving skills of family and friend caregivers of people with dementia. This will be the first study of its kind to understand which interventions for family and friend caregivers of people with dementia will work the best and how these interventions might better support family and friend caregivers. We will identify interventions that will work better for different groups of caregivers (e.g. older women, older men). This work will support the feasible implementation of evidence informed in person and virtual interventions that are tailored to the needs of family and friend caregivers during and after the COVID-19 pandemic.