Project Summary/Abstract
Caregiving for a spouse with Alzheimer’s Disease and Related Dementia (ADRD) is extremely stressful and
often prolonged, ranging from 3.3 and 11.7 years. For many caregivers, this period serves as a “living
bereavement,” or a time of grieving the loved one they once knew before the ADRD progression. Heightened
inflammation and its associated sickness behaviors may negatively influence caregiver’s health and quality of
life. Low heart rate variability (HRV) reflects poor vagal tone, or a diminished capacity to emotionally and
physiologically recover from stress and engage in one’s social environment, which could negatively impact
their ability to give care. However, it is unknown whether interventions aimed at improving caregiver grief,
inflammation, and HRV among ADRD spousal caregivers are feasible or effective. Guided by the NIH Stage
Model for Behavioral Intervention Development, the candidate’s past research in Stage 0 informs the Stage 1
& Stage 2 research proposed here, providing valuable training in translating observational research findings
into intervention development, and testing for preliminary efficacy. These studies will lay the groundwork for a
future NIH-funded randomized control trial (R01 application submitted in Year 5) to test the efficacy of the
targeted writing intervention in decreasing caregiving grief, improving HRV, reducing inflammation and
sickness behaviors, and improving quality of life and caregiving self-efficacy among ADRD spousal caregivers.
Training activities specifically designed to coincide with the proposed project will be accomplished through a
combination of formal coursework, mentorship with directed readings, workshops, hands-on training, grant
writing, and research activities. The training will take place primarily at Rice University’s Bioscience Research
Collaborative (BRC), an innovative space where scientists and educators from Rice University and its
neighbors in the Texas Medical Center (TMC) can come together to conduct collaborative research to improve
human health through science. This five-year plan for the proposed Mentor Career Development Award is
aimed at launching the candidate’s independent research career in identifying and targeting
biobehavioral mechanisms that inform intervention development, reduce disease burden, and promote
quality of life among the aging.