$3 million National Institute on Aging grant will provide much-needed support to underserved dementia caregivers

George Mason University researcgher Y. Alicia Hong’s WECARE intervention will invigorate resilience in family caregivers of individuals with dementia

2025-10-15

(Press-News.org) More than 7 million Americans live with Alzheimer's disease and related dementias (ADRD), supported by 12 million unpaid family caregivers whose contributions are valued at $413 billion annually. As the U.S. population continues to age, the number of people with dementia and their caregivers will nearly trip by 2050. Innovative solutions to support family caregivers are urgently needed.

Now, with a $3 million grant from the National Institute on Aging (NIA), digital health intervention researcher, Y. Alicia Hong, is poised to change that. Hong led an interdisciplinary team to develop the Wellness Enhancement for Caregivers (WECARE) as a culturally tailored, digital health intervention to enhance caregiving skills and improve the wellbeing of dementia caregivers. The new grant will allow her team to further refine WECARE using AI technology and evaluate it with a randomized controlled trial.

“WECARE is one of the first personalized digital interventions for dementia caregivers. Though it is designed for Chinese American dementia caregivers, it can be adapted for other groups and serve the growing demand for digital support for dementia caregivers in an aging society,” said Hong, a professor in the College of Public Health Department of Health Administration and Policy at George Mason University.

The 7-week program will provide participants with informational ADRD multimedia content, quiz games, social networking with other caregivers, personalized feedback, and additional individualized resources. WECARE’s success will be evaluated by measuring the depressive symptoms reported by participants. The project also intends to identify barriers to and facilitators of WECARE’s adoption and long-term use.

This resource comes at a critical time as the aging population grows, and more people with ADRD require caregivers. Additionally, most family caregivers have chronic conditions due to prolonged and intensive dementia caregiving, causing an increased need for resources that sustain the health of family caregivers.

Hong’s grant entitled “WECARE: A Personalized Intervention for Underserved Chinese American Dementia Caregivers” will take place from September 2025 to August 2030, for a total of $3,088,427. WECARE is directly responsive to NIA’s priority of effective interventions for ADRD-affected populations. Learn more about WECARE's pilot studies.

About the researcher

Hong studies the intersection of health services delivery and consumer informatics. Her work explores chronic care and self-care solutions through innovative digital technologies to improve patient-centered outcomes and enhance health care accessibility. Hong’s research focuses on implementation and dissemination science and leveraging digital technologies to enhance health services delivery.

END

ELSE PRESS RELEASES FROM THIS DATE:

Study links obesity-driven fatty acids to breast cancer, warns against high-fat diets like keto

2025-10-15

A team from Huntsman Cancer Institute at the University of Utah (the U) has found that triple-negative breast cancer is fueled by lipids and that these fatty acids are a key feature of obesity that promote tumor growth. Their National Cancer Institute-funded research, conducted in preclinical mouse models, suggests that breast cancer patients and survivors with obesity could benefit from lipid lowering therapies—and that they should avoid high-fat weight loss regimens like ketogenic diets. “The key here is that people have underestimated the importance of fats and lipids in the all-encompassing ...

Did lead limit brain and language development in Neanderthals and other extinct hominids?

2025-10-15

What set the modern human brain apart from our now extinct relatives like Neanderthals? A new study by University of California San Diego School of Medicine and an international team of researchers reveals that ancient hominids — including early humans and great apes — were exposed to lead earlier than previously thought, up to two million years before modern humans began mining the metal. This exposure may have shaped the evolution of hominid brains, limiting language and social development in all but modern humans due to a protective genetic variant that only we carry. The study was published in Science Advances on October 15, ...

New study reveals alarming mental health and substance use disparities among LGBTQ+ youth

2025-10-15

New research from the University of Delaware finds that LGBTQ+ adolescents in Delaware face strikingly higher rates of mental health challenges and substance use compared to their peers. In one of the first state-level studies conducted after the COVID-19 pandemic, Assistant Professor Eric Layland and colleagues in UD’s College of Education and Human Development analyzed responses from more than 17,000 eighth and eleventh grade students collected through the 2022–2024 Delaware School Surveys. About one in four students identified as LGBTQ+ and ...

U.K. food insecurity is associated with mental health conditions

2025-10-15

Food insecurity affects about 1 in 13 (7.8%) U.K. households, with higher rates of food insecurity found in Black British households and people with long-term mental health conditions, according to a new study published October 15, 2025 in the open-access journal PLOS One by Maddy Power of the London School of Hygiene and Tropical Medicine, U.K., and colleagues. Food insecurity—defined as limited or uncertain availability of nutritionally adequate and safe foods—has become an increasingly urgent public health concern in the U.K. In the new study, researchers analyzed data from the 2019/20 Family Resource ...

At least eight bat species commute or forage over pig farms in Northern Italy

2025-10-15

At least eight bat species commute or forage over pig farms in Northern Italy, and the frequent absence of physical barriers and biosafety measures preventing contact between bats or bat feces and pigs could increase exposure risks to the diverse coronaviruses that circulate in these species Article URL: http://plos.io/4mQ5Scy Article title: A multi-disciplinary approach to identify spillover interfaces of bat coronaviruses to pig farms in Italy Author countries: Italy, U.K. Funding: The present work was supported by the First International ICRAD call under grant agreement N◦ 862605, ID 95 ConVErgence. END ...

Ancient teeth reveal mammalian responses to climate change in Southeast Asia

2025-10-15

Strictly embargoed until 15 October, 2025 at 14:00 (2:00 pm) U.S. Eastern Time A new study published in Science Advances and led by the Max Planck Institute of Geoanthropology uncovers how flexibility made the difference between survival and extinction. By analyzing fossil teeth from Vietnam and Laos, an international team reconstructed the diets and habitats of extinct, extirpated, and still-living species. The results show that animals with varied diets and habitats were more likely to endure, while narrow specialists largely disappeared. The team examined 141 fossil teeth dating from 150,000 to 13,000 years ago and combined them with existing records. Using stable isotope analysis ...

Targeting young adults beginning university may be especially effective for encouraging pro-environmental behaviors

2025-10-15

When starting college, many young people report adopting pro-environmental behaviors such as active travel (e.g. walking, biking) and reduced meat consumption, so targeted interventions in these transition moments could be especially effective. Article URL: https://plos.io/4pZVamA Article Title: Shifting horizons: Significant life events and pro-environmental behaviour change in early adulthood Author Countries: United Kingdom Funding: This work was supported by the European Research Council (ERC), under the project “Understanding and leveraging ‘moments of change’ for pro-environmental behaviour shifts” [grant number: 820235 to LW; KM; MG; NN] ...

This robotic skin allows tiny robots to navigate complex, fragile environments

2025-10-15

Researchers developed a soft robotic skin that enables vine robots that are just a few millimeters wide to navigate convoluted paths and fragile environments. To accomplish this, the researchers integrated a very thin layer of actuators made of liquid crystal elastomer at strategic locations in the soft skin. The robot is steered by controlling the pressure inside its body and temperature of the actuators. The researchers showed that a robot equipped with this skin could successfully navigate a model of the arteries in a human body. The robot also was able to navigate a model of the interior of a jet engine. The research team published their results ...

‘Metabots’ shapeshift from flat sheets into hundreds of structures

2025-10-15

Researchers have created a class of robots made from thin sheets of material that can snap into hundreds of stable shapes – allowing them to execute a wide variety of actions despite the fact that they have no motor and are made of a single, flat material. These “metabots” essentially resemble animated sheets of plastic, capable of moving around a surface or grasping objects. “We start out with simple polymer sheets that have holes into them, but by applying thin films to the surface of the polymer we’re able to incorporate ...

Starting university boosts recycling and greener travel, a University of Bath study finds

2025-10-15

Starting university doesn’t just change where students live or study; it can also lead to changing their habits. New research from the Centre for Climate Change and Social Transformations (CAST) at the University of Bath shows that young people are more likely to adopt sustainable behaviours, like recycling and active travel, during major life transitions. The study, published in PLOS Climate, tracking hundreds of 16–24-year-olds, examined two “moments of change”: the move from school to university and the sudden disruption of the COVID-19 pandemic. Both events reshaped daily routines, offering opportunities ...

LAST 30 PRESS RELEASES:

Gene therapy delivers lasting immune protection in children with rare disorder

New world record set for fastest human whole genome sequencing, representing significant step towards revolutionizing genomic care in the NICU

Shedding light on materials in the physical, biological sciences

Study finds emotional tweets by politicians don’t always win followers and can backfire with diverse audiences

Paul “Bear” Bryant Awards announce 2025 Coach of the Year Award watch list