Virtual communities of practice improve the quality of life of family caregivers of people with alzheimer's disease: a quasi experimental study

Caring for someone with dementia puts a strain on family caregivers, and there's a link between that strain and their Quality Of Life (QoL). According to research, careers’ primary requirements are disease knowledge and training, as well as support from others in similar situations, and Internet interventions show great potential in satisfying these needs. Virtual Communities of Practice (VCoPs) are Internet-based frameworks for sharing knowledge in which members cooperate and develop a sense of community trust. This paper aims to assess the influence of participation in a VCoP (created through an App) on careers of persons with Alzheimer's disease's quality of life. The results demonstrate a substantial difference in QoL before and after the intervention.

VCoPs allow careers to engage and share their knowledge, mostly by providing them with information and assistance from peers to help them meet their needs. Furthermore, while their relative’s functional status declined, caregivers’ QoL did not decline, which could be attributed to their engagement in VCoP. Despite the fact that we discovered significant pre- and post-intervention variations in caregivers’ health literacy, we must report the equivocal finding that this variable primarily affects QoL’s physical domain. Participants also said they had a good time since the app was seen as a valuable tool, they were able to regulate their own involvement, and they met new people and felt less lonely. The findings show that participating in a VCoP improves careers’ quality of life.

Because of the global increase in life expectancy, chronic age-related diseases are becoming more prevalent. Dementia is one of the most difficult illnesses to deal with, with Alzheimer’s disease accounting for half of all dementia cases. Dementia is become a big public health issue. Dementia affects 47 million individuals globally, with that number estimated to rise to 75 million by 2030 and 132 million by 2050. In this situation, the function of family careers (hence referred to as “caregivers”) becomes increasingly important.