Improving the lives of ethnically diverse family carers and people living with dementia using digital media resources – Protocol for the Draw-Care randomised controlled trial

Abstract

Objectives Ethnically diverse family carers of people living with dementia (hereafter carers and people with dementia) experience more psychological distress than other carers. To reduce this inequality, culturally adapted, multilingual, evidence-based practical assistance is needed. This paper details the Draw-Care study protocol including a randomised control trial (RCT) to test the effectiveness of a digital intervention comprising a multilingual website, virtual assistant, animated films, and information, on the lives of carers and people with dementia in Australia. Methods The Draw-Care intervention will be evaluated in a 12-week active waitlist parallel design RCT with 194 carers from Arabic, Cantonese, Greek, Hindi, Italian, Mandarin, Spanish, Tamil, and Vietnamese-speaking language groups. Our intervention was based on the World Health Organization's (WHO) iSupport Lite online carer support messages and was co-designed with carers, people with dementia, service providers, and clinicians. Culturally adapted multilingual digital resources were created in nine languages and English. Results In Phase I (2022), six co-design workshops with stakeholders and interviews with people with dementia informed the development of the intervention which will be trialled and evaluated in Phases II and III (2023 and 2024). Conclusions Digital media content is a novel approach to providing cost-effective access to health care information. This study protocol details the three study phases including the RCT of a co-designed, culturally adapted, multilingual, digital intervention for carers and people with dementia to advance the evidence in dementia and digital healthcare research and help meet the needs of carers and people with dementia in Australia and globally.