Researchers from Texas A&M University, in collaboration with the Texas Alzheimer’s Research and Care Consortium, explored user satisfaction with Theora® Care, a system designed to assist dementia caregivers through wandering alerts and communication tools.
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Technology now plays a role in nearly every aspect of modern life, including helping families care for loved ones with dementia. Wearable devices equipped with GPS and other non-invasive sensors are proving valuable in preventing wandering and alerting caregivers when it happens—easing some of the emotional strain that comes with caregiving.
This is especially important as dementia rates continue to rise. Currently, about 6.9 million Americans aged 65 and older are living with Alzheimer’s disease, and family caregivers often experience higher levels of stress and poorer physical and mental health compared to others.
Despite the growing use of these technologies, little has been known about how caregivers interact with them and how effective they find them. Now, new insight is available thanks to a pilot study funded by the Texas Alzheimer’s Research and Care Consortium and led by researchers from the Texas A&M University School of Public Health.
The study focused on Theora® Care, a system that includes a wearable device for the person with dementia and a paired smartphone app for their caregiver. The system alerts caregivers if their loved one wanders and enables easy communication between them.
This focus on increasing the situational awareness for both the caregiver and the person with dementia is a new innovation in this type of technology. Our goal was to find out how usable caregivers found this technology, and their overall satisfaction with it.
Matthew Lee Smith, Ph.D., Professor, Texas A&M University School of Public Health
Smith collaborated with a team that included Texas A&M researchers Marcia G. Ory, Ph.D., Regents and Distinguished Professor, staff member Ashley D. Wilson, postdoctoral fellow Chung Lin Kew, and colleagues from the University of North Texas, the University of Texas at Austin Dell Medical School, and the University of Utah.
The study, conducted from September 2018 to December 2021, involved 41 pairs of people living with dementia and their family caregivers across three Texas locations.
The caregivers had an average age of 66, with 78.7 % being female, 95.2 % Caucasian, and 61.9 % holding at least a four-year college degree. The care recipients had an average age of 76.8, with 57.6 % being male, 96.8 % Caucasian, and 58.7 % holding at least a four-year college degree.
Most caregivers (79 %) lived with their care recipient, who was either their spouse or partner (66.7 %) or parent (28.6 %). They reported providing an average of 5.7 hours of daily care.
During the study, care recipients wore a GPS-enabled smartwatch-like device with an S.O.S. emergency calling function.
The caregivers were given a smartphone app to track their loved one’s location. Safe zones were set up that trigger alerts when crossed. After three months, the caregivers completed telephone interviews about their experience using the system, including its ease of use, usefulness in caregiving, and overall satisfaction.
On average, caregivers with higher baseline Zarit Burden Interview scores found the system to be more useful with their caregiving and were more satisfied with the system.
Matthew Lee Smith, Ph.D, Professor, Texas A&M University School of Public Health
He suggested that this satisfaction may be linked to caregivers feeling a greater sense of security, reducing the stress of constant supervision and concerns about wandering.
Seventy percent of caregivers reported that their care recipient wore the device daily. However, they used features like location tracking, geo-fencing, and two-way calling less frequently—ranging from 39 % to 17.1 % daily use. Smith suggested this indicates that caregivers found reassurance simply in knowing the device was in place, even if they didn’t need to use every feature every day.
According to Smith, this implies that certain system features required fewer daily requirements and that caregivers benefited from knowing the person with dementia was wearing the device.
While more studies are needed, these findings are encouraging. They indicate that multi-component technological solutions can be adopted and could benefit both caregivers and persons living with dementia.
Matthew Lee Smith, Ph.D., Professor, Texas A&M University School of Public Health
Journal Reference:
Smith, L. M., et al. (2025) Utilization and perceived usefulness of monitoring technology for family caregivers of people living with Alzheimer's disease and related dementias. Journal of Alzheimer’s Disease. doi.org/10.1177/13872877241300078