Digital tools for delivery of dementia education for health-care providers: a systematic review

Abstract

Continuing education on dementia for healthcare providers has been shown to have positive effects on diagnostic confidence, knowledge, and care management. Technological approaches to educational delivery have been found to have comparable effects in terms of quality and efficacy. The purpose of the systematic review was to compose and present an evidence base for technology-delivered dementia education for healthcare providers. The review used PRISMA guidelines and Cochrane methods focusing on studies with a pre-and post-intervention evaluation. Technology-based delivery of dementia education was broadly defined as any technology-based medium delivered in real time or asynchronously. Ten studies were identified and analyzed using content analysis. The review revealed positive outcomes post-intervention, for dementia knowledge, readiness to change, receptiveness to training, communication skills, and self-efficacy. Studies were rated as medium to high quality on a scale for measurement of published data in research, and there was generally an unknown risk of bias due to a lack of a control group in most studies (N = 7). The findings revealed benefits of digitally-based, asynchronous continuing education for healthcare providers, which allow schedule flexibility and the ability to deliver remotely. Findings also revealed benefits of presentations using a variety of interactive educational materials via videos, voice recordings, textual medium and online discussion groups. Suggestions for intervention improvements include tailoring training for the specific needs and knowledge levels of healthcare practitioners and using validated scales to measure outcomes.

Establishing the effectiveness of technology-enabled dementia education for health and social care practitioners: a systematic review

“…Quality appraisal was also completed by one reviewer; however, it is worth noting that MERSQI focuses on design issues and is quite objective [ 50 ]. It is also worth noting that the overall quality of studies was judged to be ‘moderate’—which is consistent with other reviews of TEDE [ 28 ]. Second reviewers appraised a proportion of studies using MMAT which mitigated against bias where more subjective judgments were involved; however, the application of MMAT to this review context required additional justification as it is traditionally used in systematic mixed studies reviews.…”

“…Despite debate as to whether evidence hierarchies are appropriate frameworks to judge the quality of educational research [ 79 ], benefits of randomised trials and controlled studies have been described in similar reviews of TEDE [ 28 ]. Reviewers of traditional dementia education endorse randomised trials when considering intervention effectiveness [ 11 ]; others highlight challenges associated with randomised trials in healthcare settings [ 80 ]; or suggest integrating qualitative methods to deal with complex educational interventions [ 81 ].…”

“…Scerbe et al [ 28 ] conducted a review that focused exclusively on digital tools for the delivery of dementia education for health-care providers. The review included 10 studies that used pre- and post-test measures of evaluation.…”

“…Much of the current evidence on TEDE is from practice-based settings using study designs involving pre- and post-tests [ 28 ]. Experimental methods in educational research are, however, diverse [ 32 ] and there is potential for more to be known about the role of quantitative methods that evaluate TEDE programmes.…”

Volunteers’ Support of Carers of Rural People Living with Dementia to Use a Custom-Built Application

“…Using online technologies to provide services to rural carers may help overcome lack of services and improve access to services in a large geographical area. A systematic review and meta-analysis of remotely delivered education for carers of people living with dementia demonstrated positive impacts for carer wellbeing [11]. O'Connell et al (2021) described how telephone-based training could help older adults and carers use internetbased methods for videoconferencing to maintain social and community connections during the global pandemic [12].…”