PMID- 33884204 OWN - NLM STAT- PubMed-not-MEDLINE LR - 20231111 IS - 2090-8024 (Print) IS - 2090-0252 (Electronic) VI - 2021 DP - 2021 TI - Improving the Quality of Life of Family Caregivers of People with Alzheimer's Disease through Virtual Communities of Practice: A Quasiexperimental Study. PG - 8817491 LID - 10.1155/2021/8817491 [doi] LID - 8817491 AB - Caring for a person with dementia burdens family caregivers, and there is a close negative relationship between this burden and their quality of life (QoL). Research suggests that caregivers' main needs are information and training about the disease and support from others experiencing the same situation, and Internet interventions hold considerable promise for meeting these needs. Virtual communities of practice (VCoPs) are Internet frameworks to share knowledge where members collaborate and achieve a sense of trust in the community. This paper seeks to evaluate the impact of participating in a VCoP (developed through an App) on the QoL of caregivers to people with Alzheimer's. Results show QoL before and after the intervention changed significantly. The impact of VCoP on caregivers' overall QoL is moderated by age and relation with the person with Alzheimer's, specifically those over 65, and spouses. VCoPs allow interaction and knowledge sharing among caregivers which provide them mainly with information and support from peers helping them to meet their needs. Furthermore, caregivers' QoL did not decrease when their relative deteriorated functionally, which could be due to the participation in VCoP. Although we found significant pre- and post differences in caregivers' health literacy, we must report the ambiguous result that this variable only impacts on QoL's physical domain. Participants also reported that they had a positive experience because the App was perceived to be a useful tool, because they could manage their own participation and they met peers and felt less lonely. Results suggest that participation in a VCoP impacts positively on caregivers' QoL. CI - Copyright (c) 2021 Montse Romero-Mas et al. FAU - Romero-Mas, Montse AU - Romero-Mas M AUID- ORCID: 0000-0002-8079-1433 AD - Universitat de Vic-Universitat Central de Catalunya (UVic-UCC), Spain. FAU - Ramon-Aribau, Anna AU - Ramon-Aribau A AUID- ORCID: 0000-0003-3303-9932 AD - Universitat de Vic-Universitat Central de Catalunya (UVic-UCC), Spain. FAU - de Souza, Dyego Leandro Bezerra AU - de Souza DLB AUID- ORCID: 0000-0001-8426-3120 AD - Universitat de Vic-Universitat Central de Catalunya (UVic-UCC), Spain. AD - Federal University of Rio Grande do Norte, Brazil. FAU - Cox, Andrew M AU - Cox AM AUID- ORCID: 0000-0002-2587-245X AD - University of Sheffield, UK. FAU - Gomez-Zuniga, Beni AU - Gomez-Zuniga B AUID- ORCID: 0000-0001-7968-588X AD - Universitat Oberta de Catalunya, Spain. LA - eng PT - Journal Article DEP - 20210405 PL - United States TA - Int J Alzheimers Dis JT - International journal of Alzheimer's disease JID - 101525141 PMC - PMC8041528 COIS- The authors declare that they have no conflicts of interest. EDAT- 2021/04/23 06:00 MHDA- 2021/04/23 06:01 PMCR- 2021/04/05 CRDT- 2021/04/22 06:45 PHST- 2020/07/22 00:00 [received] PHST- 2021/02/11 00:00 [revised] PHST- 2021/03/01 00:00 [accepted] PHST- 2021/04/22 06:45 [entrez] PHST- 2021/04/23 06:00 [pubmed] PHST- 2021/04/23 06:01 [medline] PHST- 2021/04/05 00:00 [pmc-release] AID - 10.1155/2021/8817491 [doi] PST - epublish SO - Int J Alzheimers Dis. 2021 Apr 5;2021:8817491. doi: 10.1155/2021/8817491. eCollection 2021.