Researchers conduct a new study using the Facebook web app to provide support to unpaid caregivers of people with Alzheimer's disease.
Researchers are carrying a new study to see if an innovative Facebook web app can help provide much-needed support to unpaid caregivers of people with Alzheimer's disease.
A team of researchers at Indiana University-Purdue University Indianapolis in the US is looking for volunteers to participate in a pilot study to see if a caregiver of a person with Alzheimer's can make meaningful use of a social networking site like Facebook.
The social micro-volunteering web app was specially designed for use in Facebook for this online study, researchers said.
Participants will meet in small Facebook groups to decide on care-giving questions that they would like answered through the use of the web app.
Members of the Facebook groups will include caregivers and a researcher. The researchers will post prompts and moderate the discussion.
Members of the support group will be able to post questions, thoughts or requests for help, and other members of the group can respond.
For the first two weeks, the research team will post predetermined questions. In the last four weeks, the support group will decide on the questions themselves.
Questions could range from asking for advice on how to deal with a relative who would not stop driving even though they have Alzheimer's to asking about emotional support.
The questions developed by the group will be delivered through the social micro-volunteering app to the larger Facebook community.
After six weeks, the participants will be asked to reflect on whether the support group helped them and how it could be improved.
"If successful, the application could be an asset to any number of the 15 million unpaid caregivers who are taking care of loved ones with Alzheimer's disease," researchers said.
While estimates show that these caregivers provide more than 17 billion hours of care, providing such care comes with its own risks.
Studies have shown that caregivers have higher rates of depression, anxiety, insomnia and cardiovascular disease.
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