Feasibility and Acceptability of Earkick for Family Caregivers: Evaluation Study

N/ANot Yet RecruitingNCT07280650

University of Michigan60 enrolled

Overview

This study evaluates the feasibility and acceptability of using the artificial intelligence (AI) chatbot mobile application (called Earkick) to support the well-being of informal care partners of individuals with traumatic brain injury (TBI), dementia, or Huntington disease (HD). Over an 8-week intervention period, up to 60 care partners will engage with the application (app), spending four weeks focusing on physical health and four weeks focusing on mental health. Participants will complete surveys at the midpoint and end of the intervention period. Participants will also complete a semi-structured interview to discuss participants experience using the Earkick app. The study team hypothesizes that care partners will find the chatbot acceptable and feasible to use in daily life, and that there will be low attrition and high completion rates of the study.

Study Type

INTERVENTIONAL

Allocation

Purpose

HEALTH_SERVICES_RESEARCH

Masking

NONE

Enrollment

Conditions

Caregivers

Interventions

Participants will download the app with the study team's help and set it up. The participants will select topics of interest to focus on during the 8-week use of the Earkick app. Participants will choose one mental health related topic to focus on from weeks 1-4 and one physical health related topic to focus on from weeks 5-8. During these 4 week cycles the participants will be guided to engage with the app's "Chat" feature, which offers conversational support through interactions with the chatbot. Additionally, participants will complete surveys at baseline, the midpoint, and end of the 8-week intervention period. Participants will also complete a semi-structured interview to discuss their experience using the Earkick app.

Eligibility

Sex: ALLMin age: 18 Years

Medical Language ↔ Plain English

Inclusion Criteria (care partner) * Age 18 years or older * Able to independently provide informed consent * Able to read, speak, and understand English * Have an Apple (iOS) smartphone, tablet, or laptop, have access to the internet and text messages, and be willing to use these resources for the study, including downloading and using the AI chatbot app (Earkick) * Be caring for and adult with a medically documented diagnosis of TBI, dementia or Huntington disease (HD) * Provide emotional, physical, and/or financial support/assistance to the individual with the TBI, dementia, or HD, indicating a response per protocol * Indicate high levels of caregiver burden, confirmed using the 12-item Zarit Burden questionnaire (scores must be ≥20) * Willing to complete all study assessments for the duration of their study participation Inclusion Criteria (care recipient): * Age 18 years or older * Have a medically documented diagnosis of TBI, dementia or Huntington disease as noted per protocol Exclusion Criteria (care partner) * Anyone not meeting inclusion criteria above * Professional, paid caregivers * Anyone at the discretion of the Principal investigator (PI) that would be a preclusion of safe or meaningful participation Exclusion Criteria (care recipient): * Anyone not meeting inclusion criteria * Lives in a care facility (assisted living, nursing home) or is bedbound

Outcomes

Primary Outcomes

Feasibility and Acceptability as measured by the Feasibility Questionnaire

Feasibility Questionnaire (items are scaled from 1 to 5 to indicate level of agreement, where "1" indicates "strong disagreement" and "5" indicates "strong agreement"). Feasibility and Acceptability as measured by ≥80% of participants indicating that care partners either "Agree" or "Strongly Agree" that the different study elements are feasible and acceptable.

Time frame: 8 weeks (post intervention)

Secondary Outcomes

Attrition as measured by the percent of participants completing the study

The study team expects ≥80% of participants to complete the study.

Time frame: Baseline to post intervention interview (approximately 8-12 weeks)

Adherence as measured by the percentage of missing data over the course of the study

Percent missing data of total expected data for each person and on average will also be calculated to characterize the feasibility of this approach (i.e., the study team expects ≥80% completion rates for the midpoint and end-of-study assessments).

Time frame: Baseline to 8 weeks