September 16, 2021
The National Institute of Health (NIH) has awarded a grant for Using design thinking approaches to tailor a dyadic behavioral sleep intervention for persons living with dementia and their caregivers to Glenna Brewster PhD, RN, FNP-BC, an Assistant Professor with Emory University's Nell Hodgson Woodruff School of Nursing. The K23 Research Project grant provides funding of $937,495 for five years towards the necessary foundation to build a successful and independent program of research related to sleep, dementia, and caregiving.
Sleep disturbance in persons living with dementia and their caregivers is a significant public health burden, which is associated with depressive symptoms and poorer quality of life. Dr. Brewster and her team will use design thinking, human-centered approaches to tailor a dyadic behavioral intervention for sleep disturbance for persons living with mild cognitive impairment or early-stage Alzheimer’s disease and related dementias and their caregivers. They will then conduct a waitlist randomized controlled trial (N = 40 dyads) to examine the intervention’s acceptability, feasibility, and preliminary efficacy on individual and dyadic objective and subjective sleep outcomes. The findings of the grant project will inform future larger-scale clinical trials and can provide a novel and innovative method for persons living with mild cognitive impairment or early-stage dementia and their caregivers to achieve better sleep and quality of life outcomes.
The completion of this grant research project will enable Dr. Brewster to acquire foundational knowledge for conducting large-scale intervention trials and fulfill the need for effective dyadic interventions to treat sleep disturbance in person living with mild cognitive impairment/caregiver dyads. The interdisciplinary training plan and goals developed for this K23 grant award will fill a critical gap in her current skill set.
Dr. Glenna Brewster is an Assistant Professor, tenure track, at the Nell Hodgson Woodruff School of Nursing at Emory University. Her program of research aligns well with NIA’s Strategic Directions for Research to understand and develop interventions to address the needs of patients living with Alzheimer’s disease and related dementias as well as the needs of their caregivers, and to engage persons living with dementia and their caregivers as part of research teams.
For more information on Dr. Glenna Brewster, visit her faculty profile. To learn more about the K23 Research Project grant, visit the National Institute of Health website