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To explore mental health help-seeking behaviours among East Asian American dementia caregivers and construct a theory grounded in their behaviour patterns.
Qualitative using constructivist grounded theory design.
We recruited 20 East Asian American dementia caregivers between August 2023 and March 2024 using purposive sampling. We conducted one-on-one interviews and analysed the data using constructivist grounded theory coding.
We constructed a theory including six concepts and 22 categories. While ‘providing care’, caregivers manage caregiving tasks and personal life, experiencing caregiving challenges. ‘Individual capacity’ is a key to perceiving caregiving situations and ‘considering seeking support’. Various factors can affect ‘using support’. Different types of support can be used separately or in combination. When receiving adequate support, caregivers can ‘gain benefits from support’. These benefits, alongside individual capacities, can shape caregivers' ‘outlook on the present and the future’.
This study explains the mental health help-seeking process within East Asian culture, broadening perspectives on diverse populations and highlighting insights into culturally tailored services.
This study offers clinicians and communities insights into the mental health help-seeking process among East Asian American dementia caregivers and highlights strategies to encourage their use of mental health services.
This theory incorporates aspects of East Asian culture, addressing a research gap in studies of Asian Americans. It may enhance understanding of culturally tailored approaches and facilitate future funding for research and services, considering cultural diversity.
The Standards for Reporting Qualitative Research.
No Patient or Public Contribution.
To explore the feasibility and acceptability of acoustic monitoring and real-time recommendations for stress detection and management (i.e., smarthealth intervention).
This qualitative study used a framework of acceptability for healthcare interventions.
From January 2021 to December 2023 in the U.S.A., we interviewed 10 family caregivers who had completed the 4-month smarthealth intervention. The caregivers shared their user experiences and feedback on the system's feasibility and acceptability. Data were analysed using abductive thematic analysis, incorporating the framework of acceptability for healthcare interventions and the collected data.
Seven themes and 19 categories emerged: attitudes, burden, ethicality, intervention adherence, intervention coherence, perceived effectiveness and suggestions. Feedback on the smarthealth intervention was mixed. Some found it beneficial, citing accuracy, ease of use and increased awareness. However, others felt burdened during its use, primarily due to time constraints.
The smarthealth intervention can potentially improve caregivers' awareness of themselves and caregiving situations.
Future directions should involve adapting the smarthealth intervention to consider diverse caregiving scenarios and incorporating a larger sample of caregivers.
This is the first study to offer a voice detection system and real-time stress management recommendations to caregivers of people living with dementia. An individualised approach should be considered to improve the system's effectiveness. This includes providing personalised intervention components, considering caregivers' time and establishing a user-friendly system with high accessibility. The findings can be a cornerstone for smarthealth interventions influencing dementia caregivers' self-care and emotional regulation.
Standards for Reporting Qualitative Research.
Members of the public and service users from a memory clinic and social media platforms contributed to the study by reviewing recruitment materials.
Trial Registration: This trial's study protocol was registered with ClinicalTrials.gov (ID No. NCT04536701) on 3 September 2020 (https://classic.clinicaltrials.gov/ct2/show/NCT04536701)
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