Acceptability and Preliminary Effectiveness of a Remote Dementia Educational Training Among Primary Care Providers and Health Navigators

Abstract

Background: Optimal care can improve lives of families with dementia but remains under-implemented. Most healthcare professional training is in person, time-intensive, and does not focus on key aspects such as early detection, and cultural competency. Objective: We explored the acceptability and preliminary effectiveness of a training, The Dementia Update Course, which addressed these issues. We hypothesized that the training would lead to increased levels of perceived dementia care competency among key healthcare workers, namely primary care providers (PCPs) and health navigators (HNs). Methods: We conducted pre-post training assessments among 22 PCPs and 32 HNs. The 6.5-h training was remote, and included didactic lectures, case discussion techniques, and materials on dementia detection and care. Outcomes included two 5-point Likert scales on acceptability, eleven on perceived dementia care competency, and the three subscales of the General Practitioners Confidence and Attitude Scale for Dementia. We used paired samples t-tests to assess the mean differences in all preliminary effectiveness outcomes. Results: The training included 28.6% of PCPs and 15.6% of HNs that self-identified as non-White or Latino and 45.5% of PCPs and 21.9% of HNs who served in rural areas. PCPs (84.2%) and HNs (91.7%) reported a high likelihood to recommend the training and high satisfaction. Most preliminary effectiveness outcomes analyzed among PCPs (11/14) and all among HNs (8/8) experienced an improvement from pre- to post-training (p < 0.05). Conclusion: A relatively brief, remote, and inclusive dementia training was associated with high levels of acceptability and improvements in perceived dementia care competency among PCPs and HNs.