Exploring the Feasibility of the LEAD Trial: Online Dyadic Dementia Care Planning for Early Alzheimer's and Other Dementias.
Eli Iacob, Rebecca L Utz, Katherine P Supiano and 5 others
PMID 40970804WHAT IT FOUND
Care partners' confidence in making medical decisions improved and stayed high for six months.
Their relationship strain with the person with dementia also dropped. The web-based planning tool was feasible but did not change the care recipients' own relationship scores.
Key findings
01Care partners' decision-making self-efficacy was significantly higher after the intervention and remained elevated at 3 and 6 months.
02Care partners reported significantly lower relationship strain and higher positive relationship aspects at follow-up, while care recipients' relationship scores did not change.
03Practical outcomes improved: 27% of dyads completed a new medical advance directive and 76% of surveyed participants shared their planning documents.
STILL TO COME
How it was doneWhat they foundWhat it means for RNs
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What it does not show
The study was not powered to prove efficacy; results are preliminary. Six dyads were excluded due to suspicious duplicate data and identical IP addresses, raising concerns about data integrity. The sample was primarily White and well-educated, limiting generalizability. Retention dropped to 56% at post-intervention, meaning nearly half the participants did not complete the full timeline. There was no control group, so it is impossible to know if the changes were due to the intervention or simply the passage of time or participation in research.
Declared interests
The authors declared no potential conflicts of interest.
The easy way to misread this
Do not interpret the improved decision-making confidence and reduced strain as proof the tool works. This was a single-arm pilot with no control group, so these changes could reflect natural adjustment over time or the effects of participating in a study rather than the intervention itself.