Correction: A Web-Based Platform (CareVirtue) to Support Caregivers of People Living With Alzheimer Disease and Related Dementias: Mixed Methods Feasibility Study.

[This corrects the article DOI: .].

"It made me feel like I wasn't alone in the darkness": exploring dementia care network communication and coordination through a digital health platform.

OBJECTIVE: To explore the use of a shared communication and coordination platform-the CareVirtue journal feature-for care networks of people living with Alzheimer's disease and related dementias to inform the design of care network support technologies. MATERIALS AND METHODS: In the primary study, care networks comprised the primary caregiver and other caregivers they invited to participate (eg, family members, in-home aides) used CareVirtue, for 60 days followed by a semistructured interview to explore primary caregivers' perceptions of usefulness. This secondary analysis focused on use of the shared journal feature of CareVirtue, which allowed care networks to communicate through posts that were shared with the network and to which network members could respond. Journal posts were analyzed using a deductive/inductive content analysis to categorize information behavior. We also conducted a thematic analysis of the interviews to identify primary caregivers' perceptions of the journal's usefulness. RESULTS: Care networks used the journal for: (1) information acquisition, (2) information sharing, (3) strategy development, and (4) information feedback. Thematic analysis revealed that caregivers felt the journal was useful at the individual, care network, and relational levels and that journal integration was influenced by care network structure and relationships. DISCUSSION: Care networks used the journal to document, share, and acquire information; co-create strategies; and provide support. The usefulness of this shared communication and coordination platform included individual and care network level benefits. CONCLUSION: These findings point to the importance of caregiver-centered technologies that support both the individual primary caregiver and the care network.

A Web-Based Platform (CareVirtue) to Support Caregivers of People Living With Alzheimer Disease and Related Dementias: Mixed Methods Feasibility Study.

BACKGROUND: People living with Alzheimer disease and related dementias (ADRD) require prolonged and complex care that is primarily managed by informal caregivers who face significant unmet needs regarding support for communicating and coordinating across their informal care network. To address this unmet need, we developed CareVirtue, which provides (1) the ability to invite care network members; (2) a care guide detailing the care plan; (3) a journal where care network members can document, communicate, and coordinate; (4) a shared calendar; and (5) vetted geolocated caregiver resources. OBJECTIVE: This study aims to evaluate CareVirtue's feasibility based on: (1) Who used CareVirtue? (2) How did caregivers use CareVirtue? (3) How did caregivers perceive the acceptability of CareVirtue? (4) What factors were associated with CareVirtue use? METHODS: We conducted a feasibility study with 51 care networks over a period of 8 weeks and used a mixed methods approach that included both quantitative CareVirtue usage data and semistructured interviews. RESULTS: Care networks ranged from 1 to 8 members. Primary caregivers were predominantly female (38/51, 75%), White (44/51, 86%), married (37/51, 73%), college educated (36/51, 71%), and were, on average, 60.3 (SD 9.8) years of age, with 18% (9/51) living in a rural area. CareVirtue usage varied along 2 axes (total usage and type of usage), with heterogeneity in how the most engaged care networks interacted with CareVirtue. Interviews identified a range of ways CareVirtue was useful, including practically, organizationally, and emotionally. On the Behavioral Intention Scale, 72% (26/36) of primary caregivers reported an average score of at least 3, indicating an above average intention to use. The average was 81.8 (SD 12.8) for the System Usability Scale score, indicating "good" usability, and 3.4 (SD 1.0) for perceived usefulness, suggesting above average usefulness. The average confidence score increased significantly over the study duration from 7.8 in week 2 to 8.9 in week 7 (P=.005; r=0.91, 95% CI 0.84-0.95). The following sociodemographic characteristics were associated with posting in the journal: retired (mean 59.5 posts for retired caregivers and mean 16.9 for nonretired caregivers), income (mean 13 posts for those reporting >US $100K and mean 55.4 for those reporting

Quality of Mobile Apps for Care Partners of People With Alzheimer Disease and Related Dementias: Mobile App Rating Scale Evaluation.

BACKGROUND: Over 11 million care partners in the United States who provide care to people living with Alzheimer disease and related dementias (ADRD) cite persistent and pervasive unmet needs related to their caregiving role. The proliferation of mobile apps for care partners has the potential to meet care partners' needs, but the quality of apps is unknown. OBJECTIVE: This study aims to evaluate the quality of publicly available apps for care partners of people living with ADRD and identify design features of low- and high-quality apps to guide future research and user-centered app development. METHODS: We searched the US Apple App and Google Play stores with the criteria that included apps needed to be available in the US Google Play or Apple App stores, accessible to users out of the box, and primarily intended for use by an informal (family or friend) care partner of a person living with ADRD. We classified and tabulated app functionalities. The included apps were then evaluated using the Mobile App Rating Scale (MARS) using 23 items across 5 dimensions: engagement, functionality, aesthetics, information, and subjective quality. We computed descriptive statistics for each rating. To identify recommendations for future research and app development, we categorized rater comments on score-driving factors for each MARS rating item and what the app could have done to improve the item score. RESULTS: We evaluated 17 apps. We found that, on average, apps are of minimally acceptable quality. Functionalities supported by apps included education (12/17, 71%), interactive training (3/17, 18%), documentation (3/17, 18%), tracking symptoms (2/17, 12%), care partner community (3/17, 18%), interaction with clinical experts (1/17, 6%), care coordination (2/17, 12%), and activities for the person living with ADRD (2/17, 12%). Of the 17 apps, 8 (47%) had only 1 feature, 6 (35%) had 2 features, and 3 (18%) had 3 features. The MARS quality mean score across apps was 3.08 (SD 0.83) on the 5-point rating scale (1=inadequate to 5=excellent), with apps scoring highest on average on functionality (mean 3.37, SD 0.99) and aesthetics (mean 3.24, SD 0.92) and lowest on average on information (mean 2.95, SD 0.95) and engagement (mean 2.76, SD 0.89). The MARS subjective quality mean score across apps was 2.26 (SD 1.02). CONCLUSIONS: We identified apps whose mean scores were more than 1 point below minimally acceptable quality, whereas some were more than 1 point above. Many apps had broken features and were rated as below acceptable for engagement and information. Minimally acceptable quality is likely to be insufficient to meet care partner needs. Future research should establish minimum quality standards across dimensions for care partner mobile apps. Design features of high-quality apps identified in this study can provide the foundation for benchmarking these standards.