Negotiation Training for Family Caregivers of People With Alzheimer's Disease

Family caregivers of persons living with Alzheimer's disease and related dementias (ADRD) frequently encounter communication challenges and interpersonal conflicts while coordinating care, making healthcare decisions, advocating for care recipients, and interacting with family members and healthcare professionals. These challenges contribute to caregiver burden, stress, anxiety, and reduced quality of life. Effective communication and conflict-management skills may improve caregivers' ability to navigate complex caregiving situations and support better caregiver outcomes. NegotiAge is a web-based negotiation and conflict-resolution training intervention developed to improve communication, problem-solving, and conflict-management skills among family caregivers of persons living with ADRD. The intervention includes online educational content and interactive scenario-based exercises that allow participants to practice negotiation and communication strategies in simulated caregiving situations. Scenarios address common caregiving conflicts involving persons living with dementia, family members, healthcare providers, and healthcare systems. Some training activities incorporate automated conversational technology to provide standardized practice opportunities. This study is a Stage 2 randomized controlled efficacy trial designed to evaluate the effectiveness of NegotiAge. Approximately 200 family caregivers will be randomized in a 1:1 ratio to either the NegotiAge intervention or an attention-control condition consisting of access to an educational website. Participants will complete assessments at baseline, immediately following intervention completion, and at 1-month and 3-month follow-up. The primary objective is to determine the efficacy of NegotiAge for reducing caregiver burden. Secondary objectives are to evaluate intervention effects on caregiver conflict-management behaviors, stress, anxiety, fatigue, self-efficacy, social well-being, and related psychosocial outcomes. Findings from this study will provide evidence regarding the efficacy of NegotiAge and inform future effectiveness and implementation research aimed at supporting family caregivers of persons living with Alzheimer's disease and related dementias. This is a fully remote study. Eligible participants may enroll from anywhere within the United States.