Announcement

Trualta has been studying its intervention rigorously since 2018 in partnership with the University of Florida to examine the effects of Trualta’s program with caregivers of people with dementia. Trualta is pleased to announce the publication of this study in the Journal of Alzheimer’s Disease Reports, an international multidisciplinary peer-reviewed journal ^1,2.

Study Findings

The findings of the study fall into two main categories: feasibility of use and improved caregiving skills and experience.

Feasibility of Use

Analyses demonstrated Trualta’s feasibility of use and excellent caregiver engagement.

• Caregivers spent an average of eight hours using Trualta, with older caregivers (≥ 60 years) spending slightly more time on the platform. Level of engagement with Trualta did not differ across various characteristics (e.g. caregiver education, patient disease severity).
• 89% of caregivers reported high satisfaction with Trualta.
• All participants reported they would recommend Trualta to another caregiver in a similar situation.
• The study had a notable retention rate of 92%.

Improved Caregiving Skills and Experience

Trualta demonstrated value for improving caregiving skill use and study findings highlighted promising indicators of burden and distress reduction.

• 84% of participants reported using at least one skill they learned from Trualta. The highest percent of use was for skills pertaining to behavioral management (60%), which has been established as highly important to caregivers³.
• More than half of the caregivers (56%) reported allocating more time for self-care after using Trualta.
• There were clinically significant trends for decreases in caregiver distress and perceived neuropsychiatric severity after using Trualta for 30 days.
• The burden scores of caregivers caring for loved ones with more severely perceived presentations appeared to decrease after using Trualta for 30 days, suggesting that Trualta may be especially beneficial for caregivers of loved ones with high severity of disease.

These published findings further establish Trualta’s intervention impact as they add an important scientific component to Trualta’s growing evidence of effectiveness. It has been widely reported that only a very small fraction of published research actually makes it into practice, and it can take as long as 17 years for this to occur^4,5,6. However, Trualta has a robust collection of dissemination products that support a tried-and-true implementation plan and get new partner portals fully launched within 4-6 weeks. To date, Trualta has already been implemented in 21 states (and counting!) and across various service delivery models. This real-world applicability and success, now coupled with compelling peer-reviewed published outcomes, has enabled Trualta to meet the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services, Administration for Community Living’s criteria for evidence-based programming.

Acknowledgements 

We sincerely thank the care managers with the Florida Alzheimer’s Association. Without their engagement and interest in this project, the study would not have been possible during the stressful COVID-19 pandemic time period.

We sincerely thank the University of Florida for their partnership on this innovative study and dedication to caregiver research. We also deeply appreciate every caregiver and patient who considered the study and participated in the investigation.

Funding was provided by Canadian Centre for Aging + Brain Health Innovation (CABHI). CABHI provides funding and support to innovators for the development, testing, and dissemination of new ideas and technologies that address unmet brain health and seniors’ care needs.

Interested in learning more about Trualta’s program? Contact Leda Rosenthal, Director of Growth, at Leda@Trualta.com or 1-800-214-5085 ext 1.

References

1. Rodriguez, K., Fugard, M., Amini, S., Smith, G., Marasco, D., Shatzer, J., Guerrero, M., Garvan, C., Davis, J., & Price, C. (2021). Caregiver Response to an Online Dementia and Caregiver Wellness Education Platform. Journal of Alzheimer’s Disease Reports, 5(1), 433–442. https://doi.org/10.3233/adr-200292
2. Journal of Alzheimer’s Disease (n.d.). About the Journal. https://www.j-alz.com/about
3. Mavounza, C., Ouellet, M. C., & Hudon, C. (2020). Caregivers’ emotional distress due to neuropsychiatric symptoms of persons with amnestic mild cognitive impairment or Alzheimer’s disease. Aging & mental health, 24(3), 423-430.
4. Green, L. W. (2014). Closing the chasm between research and practice: evidence of and for change. Health Promotion Journal of Australia, 25(1), 25-29.
5. Morris, Z. S., Wooding, S., & Grant, J. (2011). The answer is 17 years, what is the question: understanding time lags in translational research. Journal of the Royal Society of Medicine, 104(12), 510-520.
6. Hanney, S. R., Castle-Clarke, S., Grant, J., Guthrie, S., Henshall, C., Mestre-Ferrandiz, J., … & Wooding, S. (2015). How long does biomedical research take? Studying the time taken between biomedical and health research and its translation into products, policy, and practice. Health research policy and systems, 13(1), 1-18.