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. 2022 May 24;10(6):969.
doi: 10.3390/healthcare10060969.

The Effect of a Tele-Health Intervention Program on Home-Dwelling Persons with Dementia or MCI and on Their Primary Caregivers during the Stay-at-Home-Order Period in the COVID-19 Pandemic Outbreak: Evidence from Taiwan

Yi-Ling Lai  1 , Wen-Yi Chen  2 , Lin-Ying Hsu  1 , Chin-Hua Fu  1   3
Affiliations

The Effect of a Tele-Health Intervention Program on Home-Dwelling Persons with Dementia or MCI and on Their Primary Caregivers during the Stay-at-Home-Order Period in the COVID-19 Pandemic Outbreak: Evidence from Taiwan

Yi-Ling Lai et al. Healthcare (Basel). .

Abstract

Background: The Taiwanese government implemented a stay-at-home order that restricted all community-based health promotion activities for the elderly by shutting down all community care centers from May 2021 to August 2021 to control the spread of COVID-19. Community-based dementia care centers were barely able to provide dementia care services during that period.

Methods: The data used in this study were collected from a community-based dementia care center that was able to continue their dementia care services through a Tele-Health intervention program. The difference-in-differences methodology was applied to evaluate the effects of the Tele-Health intervention program on home-dwelling persons with dementia or mild cognitive impairment and on their primary caregivers during the COVID-19 pandemic.

Results: The Tele-Health intervention program significantly increased the well-being of the participants and their primary caregivers, but the negative correlations between the Tele-Health intervention program and family functioning were also found to be significant.

Conclusions: The significant substitution (negative) effects between the Tele-Health intervention program and family functioning raises the concern that promotion of the Tele-Health intervention program comes at the potential cost of a loss of family functioning. Policymakers should be cautious when considering the Tele-Health intervention program in response to pandemics and demographic transitions.

Keywords: COVID-19; SARS-CoV-2; Tele-Health; dementia; lockdown; mild cognitive impairment; stay-at-home-order policy.

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Conflict of interest statement

The authors declare that there is no conflict of interest.

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