Empowering informal caregivers of people living with dementia and enhancing digital health literacy through an extended digital intervention of the WHO iSupport manual: protocol for the project iDEM-Support

Informal caregivers of people living with dementia (PlwD) play a central role in home-based care. They are often exposed to emotional, physical, and organizational burdens, which increases their risk of psychological stress. Digital interventions have shown promise in supporting this target group. The WHO's iSupport program offers a digital training platform for informal caregivers of PlwD; however, it has not yet been translated or adapted for the German healthcare context. Furthermore, deficits in digital health literacy (DHL) present a barrier to the use of digital health services. The iDEM-Support project aims to translate the platform iSupport into German, culturally adapt it, and develop a module to promote DHL. Using a mixed-methods design, informal caregivers and experts are involved in a participatory manner to enable user-centered development of both the platform and the DHL module. The content and design are developed based on qualitative interviews and focus group discussions with informal caregivers (involved in both steps) and experts (only involved in the focus group discussions). Usability is tested and evaluated through think-aloud sessions and internal testing by the project team. The project aims to empower informal caregivers by improving the usability and accessibility of iSupport within the German healthcare context. The platform iSupport Deutschland seeks to enhance the self-efficacy, digital competence, and psychosocial resilience of informal caregivers. Additionally, the project offers approaches for sustainable integration of the platform into existing healthcare structures. The iSupport Deutschland platform will be evaluated in a randomized controlled study following the research and development described here.Trial registration Review: PROSPERO 2025 CRD420251048532.