$3 million National Institute on Aging grant will provide much-needed support to underserved dementia caregivers

Taylor Thomas — Wed, 15 Oct 2025 13:11:07 +0000

$3 million National Institute on Aging grant will provide much-needed support to underserved dementia caregivers Taylor Thomas Wed, 10/15/2025 - 09:11

More than 7 million Americans live with Alzheimer's disease and related dementias (ADRD), supported by 12 million unpaid family caregivers whose contributions are valued at $413 billion annually. As the U.S. population continues to age, the number of people with dementia and their caregivers will nearly triple by 2050. Innovative solutions to support family caregivers are urgently needed.

Y. Alicia Hong. Photo provided.

Now, with a $3 million grant from the National Institute on Aging (NIA), �鶹��Ƶ digital health intervention researcher Y. Alicia Hong is poised to change that. Hong led an interdisciplinary team to develop the Wellness Enhancement for Caregivers (WECARE) as a culturally tailored, digital health intervention to enhance caregiving skills and improve the well-being of dementia caregivers. The new grant will allow her team to further refine WECARE using artificial intelligence (AI) and evaluate it with a randomized controlled trial.

“WECARE is one of the first personalized digital interventions for dementia caregivers,” said Hong, a professor in the College of Public Health's Department of Health Administration and Policy. "Though it is designed for Chinese American dementia caregivers, it can be adapted for other groups and serve the growing demand for digital support for dementia caregivers in an aging society

The seven-week program will provide participants with informational ADRD multimedia content, quiz games, social networking with other caregivers, personalized feedback, and additional individualized resources. WECARE’s success will be evaluated by measuring the depressive symptoms reported by participants. The project also intends to identify barriers to and facilitators of WECARE’s adoption and long-term use.

This resource comes at a critical time as the aging population grows, and more people with ADRD require caregivers. Additionally, most family caregivers have chronic conditions due to prolonged and intensive dementia caregiving, causing an increased need for resources that sustain the health of family caregivers.

Hong’s grant titled “WECARE: A Personalized Intervention for Underserved Chinese American Dementia Caregivers” will take place from September 2025 to August 2030, for a total of $3,088,427. WECARE is directly responsive to NIA’s priority of effective interventions for ADRD-affected populations.

Hong studies the intersection of health services delivery and consumer informatics. Her work explores chronic care and self-care solutions through innovative digital technologies to improve patient-centered outcomes and enhance health care accessibility. Hong’s research focuses on implementation and dissemination science and leveraging digital technologies to enhance health services delivery.

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Y. Alicia Hong, PhD

tguingab — Mon, 20 May 2019 21:31:51 +0000

Y. Alicia Hong, PhD tguingab Mon, 05/20/2019 - 17:31

Professor, HAP

Contact Information

Email: yhong22@gmu.edu

Phone: 703-993-5093
Building: Peterson Hall
Room 4414

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Biography

Dr. Y. Alicia Hong is a Professor in the Department of Health Administration and Policy at �鶹��Ƶ. She is an expert in behavioral interventions with a research interest on the intersection of health services delivery and consumer informatics. Her work primarily explores chronic care and self-care solutions through innovative digital technologies, aiming to improve patient-centered outcomes and enhance healthcare accessibility.

In health services research, Dr. Hong’s research focuses on implementation and dissemination science. Specifically, she’s interested in: How to develop and deliver tailored, customizable, and personalized health services for chronic patients with diverse needs? How to disseminate evidence-based programs efficiently and effectively? How to use multilevel and multimodal data to optimize health services resources?

In consumer health informatics, Dr. Hong’s research focuses on leveraging digital technologies to enhance health services delivery. Specifically, she’s interested in: How to use AI to support personalized chronic care and self-care? How to improve adoption and sustained use of digital tools? How to integrate patient- or consumer- generated data with EHR data to optimize clinical decision making?

Dr. Hong has developed and evaluated digital health interventions for cancer survivors (iCanFit), people living with HIV (Run4Love), family caregivers of persons with Alzheimer’s disease and related dementias (WECARE), racial and ethnic minority communities (Stronger2), just to name a few. Her work has contributed to increased disease screening and vaccination rates, promoted physical activity and healthy living, enhanced patient-provider communication, strengthened connections to social and community services, and improved overall patient-centered health outcomes.

Since 2007, Dr. Hong has served as Principal Investigator, Co-PI, or Sub-PI on more than 20 externally funded research projects. She has published over 100 peer-reviewed journal articles and presented at more than 150 academic conferences. She has served on expert panels for national and international agencies including NIH, NSF, HRSA, and WHO.

Degrees

PhD, Public Health, Johns Hopkins University
MAA, Medical Anthropology, University of Maryland, College Park
BA, English, Xiamen University

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$3 million National Institute on Aging grant will provide much-needed support to underserved dementia caregivers

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Grand Challenge Initiative

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Y. Alicia Hong, PhD

Contact Information

Personal Websites

Biography

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