The UP-TECH project, an intervention to support caregivers of Alzheimer's disease patients in Italy: preliminary findings on recruitment and caregiving burden in the baseline population

Objectives: The paper describes recruitment results and characteristics of the UP-TECH clinical trial sample, including level of care services use, informal caregiver burden and its determinants.Methods: UP-TECH is designed to test innovative care solutions for community-dwelling patients with moderate stage Alzheimer's disease and their caregivers in Italy. Four hundred and fifty patient–caregiver dyads were randomized into three arms receiving different combinations of services, composed of case management interventions, nurse visits, assistive technology and educational brochures. The research nurses administered a questionnaire comprising an in-depth socio-demographic assessment and several clinical scales, such as Novak's Caregiver Burden Inventory. Analyses of baseline data were conducted using uni- and bi-variate statistics. Linear regressions were computed to identify de-confounded correlates of caregiver burden.Results: Four hundred and thirty-eight patient–caregiver dyads were recruited and rand...