Supporting Care Partners' Well-Being With Artificial Intelligence (AI) Chatbots

NCT07145723 | Completed

• 1 other identifier: HUM00271412
• Study Type: interventional
• Target: 26
• Locations: 1 country
• Sites: 1

Brief Summary

This study is being completed to test an AI therapy chatbot application called Earkick to see whether it is feasible and acceptable in supporting care partners who support individuals living with dementia.

Conditions

Caregivers

Keywords

Caregivers for adults with dementia; Surveys; Care partners; Artificial intelligence (AI) mobile application; Quality of life; Chatbot

Outcome Measures

Primary Outcomes (1)

• Feasibility and Acceptability as measured by the Feasibility and Acceptability Questionnaire

  Feasibility and Acceptability Questionnaire (items are scaled from 1 to 5 to indicate level of agreement, where "1" indicates "strong disagreement" and "5" indicates "strong agreement").

  4 weeks and 8 weeks (post intervention)

Secondary Outcomes (2)

• Attrition as measured by the percent of participants completing the study

  8 weeks

• Adherence as measured by the percentage of missing data over the course of the study

  8 weeks

Study Arms (1)

Earkick app

EXPERIMENTAL

Other: Earkick app

Interventions

Earkick app OTHER

Participants will have a baseline visit followed by an 8-week home monitoring period (HMP) using the Earkick app. The Earkick app will interact with a mental health chatbot. Participants will complete online surveys at the midpoint (4 weeks) and end (8 weeks) of the HMP. Participants will choose one mental health-related topic to focus on from weeks 1-4 and one physical health-related topic to focus on from weeks 5-8. Additionally, participants will have a post-HMP interview over Zoom.

Earkick app

Eligibility Criteria

• Age: 18 Years+
• Sex: all
• Healthy Volunteers: No
• Age Groups: Adult (18-64), Older Adult (65+)

You may qualify if:

• Participants need to be a care partner (informal caregiver) of an individual living with dementia
• Participant provides emotional, physical, and/or financial support/assistance to the individual with dementia (per protocol)
• Participants indicate high levels of caregiver burden, confirmed using the 12-item Zarit Burden questionnaire (per protocol)
• Provide informed consent and read, speak, and understand English
• Have an Apple smartphone, tablet, or laptop, have access to the internet and text messages, and be willing to use this device as well as internet and text message access for the study, including downloading the AI chatbot app
• Be willing to complete all study assessments

You may not qualify if:

• Professional, paid caregivers
• Anything that would preclude safe or meaningful participation in the study

Sponsors & Collaborators

• University of Michigan: lead

Study Sites (1)

University of Michigan

Ann Arbor, Michigan, 48109, United States

Location

Study Officials

• Mark Newman, PhD

  University of Michigan

  PRINCIPAL INVESTIGATOR

Study Design

• Study Type: interventional
• Phase: not applicable
• Allocation: NA
• Masking: NONE
• Purpose: OTHER
• Intervention Model: SINGLE GROUP
• Sponsor Type: OTHER
• Responsible Party: PRINCIPAL INVESTIGATOR
• PI Title: Professor of Information

Study Record Dates

• First Submitted: August 20, 2025
• First Posted: August 28, 2025
• Study Start: September 22, 2025
• Primary Completion: January 23, 2026
• Study Completion: February 4, 2026
• Last Updated: April 1, 2026

Record last verified: 2026-03

Data Sharing

• IPD Sharing: Will not share

Locations

US (1)