Twitter Support for Dementia Caregivers

(Tweet-S2 Trial)

Overseen By Mariangels de Planell Saguer, PhD

Age: 18+

Sex: Any

Trial Phase: Academic

Sponsor: Columbia University

Disqualifiers: No Twitter account, Not caregiver, others

No Placebo Group All trial participants will receive the active study treatment (no placebo)

Compensation: Varies

Number of Visits: Unknown

966 Participants Needed

Trial Summary

What is the purpose of this trial?

The prevalence of dementia is higher in Hispanics and African Americans than non-Hispanic Whites. Moreover, dementia caregivers often experience loneliness as well decreased health status. The expansion of social media use among Hispanics and African Americans, particularly Twitter - a short message service - offers great promise for improving social support. This study aims to evaluate changes of discussion topics, sentiment and networking styles (i.e., number of followers) among anonymous followers of our two Twitter networks; the African American/Black dementia caregiver group and the Hispanic dementia caregiver group.

Research Team

Sunmoo Yoon, PhD

Principal Investigator

Associate Research Scientist in the Department of Medicine

Eligibility Criteria

This trial is for Black or Hispanic dementia caregivers living in the U.S., who are 18 or older, can speak English or Spanish, and use a smartphone. They must agree to Twitter's terms of service and privacy policies, and join one of two Twitter networks designed for their demographic.

Inclusion Criteria

Black or Hispanic, living in the U.S. including the U.S. territories

must agree to terms of conditions of use and privacy policy and rules of one of the two dementia caregiver network (Hispanic @dcnh, Black @dcnaab), the Twitter user agreement of the terms of service, Twitter privacy policy and Twitter rules including intellectual property, violence, misconduct, abuse behavior, private information and spam and security

You have a smartphone or a cell phone with text messaging capabilities.

Exclusion Criteria

This does not apply to me as I am not a child.

You cannot participate if you have a Twitter account that is not anonymous.

You are not taking care of a family member with dementia.

Timeline

Screening

Participants are screened for eligibility to participate in the trial

2-4 weeks

Intervention

Participants receive daily messages and participate in monthly group chats via Twitter for a year

12 months

Follow-up

Participants are monitored for engagement and emotional valence after the intervention

4 weeks

Treatment Details

Interventions

• Twitter Based Social Support

Trial Overview The study tests if using tailored Twitter support networks can affect discussion topics, sentiment, and networking (like number of followers) among Black (@dcnaab) and Hispanic (@dcnh) dementia caregivers.

Participant Groups

Group I: Hispanic dementia caregivers Experimental Treatment 1 Intervention

De-identified followers of our Hispanic dementia caregiver Twitter network will receive messages from the network (Twitter for Hispanic caregivers' intervention).

Group II: African American dementia caregivers Experimental Treatment 1 Intervention

De-identified followers of our African American dementia caregiver Twitter network will receive messages from the network (Twitter for African American caregivers' intervention).

Who Is Running the Clinical Trial?

Columbia University

Lead Sponsor

Trials

1,529

Recruited

2,832,000+

Department of Health and Human Services

Collaborator

Trials

240

Recruited

944,000+

National Institute on Aging (NIA)

Collaborator

Trials

1,841

Recruited

28,150,000+