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A Weekly, Evidence-Based Health Letter for Caregivers (90Second Caregiver): Usability Study.

ABSTRACT: BACKGROUND:Informal caregivers are family members or close friends who provide unpaid help to individuals with acute or chronic health conditions so that they can manage daily life tasks. The greatest source of health information is the internet for meeting the needs of caregivers. However, information on the internet may not be scientifically valid, it may be written in language that is difficult to read, and is often in very large doses. 90Second Caregiver is a health letter whose aim is to disseminate knowledge to caregivers in a user-friendly, weekly format, in order to improve their wellbeing. OBJECTIVE:The main objective was to test a sample of 90Second Caregiver health letters in order to assess their usability and to optimize the design and content of the health letters. METHODS:Usability research themes were assessed using semi-structured phone interviews, incorporating the Think Aloud method with retrospective questioning. RESULTS:Usability was assessed in the context of five main themes: understandability and learnability, completeness, relevance, and quality and credibility of the health letter content, as well as design and format. Caregivers generally provided positive feedback regarding the usability of the letters. The usability feedback was used to refine 90Second Caregiver in order to improve the design and content of the series. Based on the results of this study, it may be of maximum benefit to target the series towards individuals who are new to caregiving or part-time caregivers, given that these caregivers of the sample found the letters more useful and relevant and had the most positive usability experiences. CONCLUSIONS:The findings assisted in the improvement of the 90Second Caregiver template, which will be used to create future health letters and refine the letters that have already been created. The findings have implications for who the 90Second Caregiver series should be targeting (ie, newer or part-time caregivers) in order to be maximally impactful in improving mental health and wellbeing-related outcomes for caregivers, such as self-efficacy and caregiving knowledge. The results of this study may be generalizable to the examination of other electronic health information formats, making them valuable to future researchers testing the usability of health information products. In addition, the methods used in this study are useful for usability hypothesis generation. Lastly, our 90Second delivery approach can generate information useful for a set of similar products (eg, weekly health letters targeted towards other conditions/populations).

SUBMITTER: Milios A

PROVIDER: S-EPMC7055838 | biostudies-literature | 2020 Feb

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature

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A Weekly, Evidence-Based Health Letter for Caregivers (90Second Caregiver): Usability Study.

Milios Athena A McGrath Patrick P Baillie Hannah H

JMIR formative research 20200212 2

<h4>Background</h4>Informal caregivers are family members or close friends who provide unpaid help to individuals with acute or chronic health conditions so that they can manage daily life tasks. The greatest source of health information is the internet for meeting the needs of caregivers. However, information on the internet may not be scientifically valid, it may be written in language that is difficult to read, and is often in very large doses. 90Second Caregiver is a health letter whose aim ...[more]

PMID: 32049064

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Project description:BackgroundCaregivers may promote the uptake of science into patient care and the practice of evidence-informed medicine. The purpose of this study was to determine whether caregiver-mediated (non-clinical caregiver-delivered) interventions are effective in improving patient, caregiver, provider, or health system outcomes.MethodsWe searched the MEDLINE, Embase, PsycINFO, Cumulative Index of Nursing and Allied Health, and Scopus databases from inception to February 27, 2017. Interventions (with a comparison group) reporting on a quality improvement intervention mediated by a caregiver and directed to a patient, in all ages and patient-care settings, were selected for inclusion. A three-category framework was developed to characterize caregiver-mediated interventions: inform (e.g., provide knowledge), activate (e.g., prompt action), and collaborate (e.g., lead to interaction between caregivers and other groups [e.g., care providers]).ResultsFifty-six studies met the inclusion criteria, and 64% were randomized controlled trials (RCTs). The most commonly assessed outcomes were patient- (n?=?40) and caregiver-oriented (n?=?33); few health system- (n?=?10) and provider-oriented (n?=?2) outcomes were reported. Patient outcomes (e.g., satisfaction) were most improved by caregiver-mediated interventions that provided condition and treatment education (e.g., symptom management information) and practical condition-management support (e.g., practicing medication protocol). Caregiver outcomes (e.g., stress-related/psychiatric outcomes) were most improved by interventions that activated caregiver roles (e.g., monitoring blood glucose) and provided information related to that action (e.g., why and how to monitor). The risk of bias was generally high, and the overall quality of the evidence was low-moderate, based on Grading of Recommendations Assessment Development and Evaluation ratings.ConclusionsThere is a large body of research, including many RCTs, to support the use of caregiver-mediated interventions that inform and activate caregivers to improve patient and caregiver outcomes. Select caregiver-mediated interventions improve patient (inform-activate) and caregiver (inform-activate-collaborate) outcomes and should be considered by all researchers implementing patient- and family-oriented research.Systematic reviewPROSPERO, CRD42016052509 .

Project description:BACKGROUND:Dementia is a neurodegenerative chronic condition characterized by a progressive decline in a person's memory, thinking, learning skills, and the ability to perform activities of daily living. Previous research has indicated that there are many types of technology interventions available in the literature that have shown promising results in improving disease progression, disease management, and the well-being of people with dementia (PwD) and their informal caregiver, thus facilitating dementia care and living. Technology-driven home care interventions, such as Connected Health (CH), could offer a convenient and low-cost alternative to traditional home care, providing an informal caregiver with the support they may need at home while caring for a PwD, improving their physical and mental well-being. OBJECTIVE:This study aimed (1) to create a multidimensional profile for evaluating the well-being progression of the PwD-informal caregiver dyad for a year during their use of a CH platform, designed for monitoring PwD and supporting their informal caregivers at home, and (2) to conduct a long-term follow-up using the proposed well-being profile at different time-interval evaluations. METHODS:The PwD-informal caregiver well-being profile was created based on the World Health Organization International Classification of Functioning considering the following outcomes: functional status, cognitive status, and quality of life for the PwD and mental well-being, sleeping quality, and burden for the informal caregiver. Over a year, comprehensive assessments of these outcomes were conducted every 3 months to evaluate the well-being of PwD-informal caregivers, using international and standardized validated questionnaires. Participants' demographic information was analyzed using descriptive statistics and presented as means and SDs. A nonparametric Friedman test was used to analyze the outcome changes and the progression in the PwD-caregiver dyads and to determine if those changes were statistically significant. RESULTS:There were no significant changes in the well-being of PwD or their caregivers over the year of follow-up, with the majority of the PwD-caregiver dyads remaining stable. The only instances in which significant changes were observed were the functional status in the PwD and sleep quality in their caregivers. In each of these measures, post hoc pairwise comparisons did not indicate that the changes observed were related to the deployment of the CH platform. CONCLUSIONS:The follow-up of this population of PwD and their informal caregivers has shown that disease progression and physical and mental well-being do not change significantly during the time, being a slow and gradual process. The well-being profile created to analyze the potential impact of the CH platform on the PwD-informal caregiver dyad well-being, once validated, could be used as a future tool to conduct the same analyses with other CH technologies for this population. INTERNATIONAL REGISTERED REPORT IDENTIFIER (IRRID):RR2-10.2196/13280.

Project description:BackgroundIncreasingly, older adults and their informal caregivers are using the Internet to search for health-related information. There is a proliferation of health information online, but the quality of this information varies, often based on exaggerated or dramatic findings, and not easily comprehended by consumers. The McMaster Optimal Aging Portal (Portal) was developed to provide Internet users with high-quality evidence about aging and address some of these current limitations of health information posted online. The Portal includes content for health professionals coming from three best-in-class resources (MacPLUS, Health Evidence, and Health Systems Evidence) and four types of content specifically prepared for the general public (Evidence Summaries, Web Resource Ratings, Blog Posts, and Twitter messages).ObjectiveOur objectives were to share the findings of the usability evaluation of the Portal with particular focus on the content features for the general public and to inform designers of health information websites and online resources for older adults about key usability themes.MethodsData analysis included task performance during usability testing and qualitative content analyses of both the usability sessions and interviews to identify core themes.ResultsA total of 37 participants took part in 33 usability testing sessions and 21 focused interviews. Qualitative analysis revealed common themes regarding the Portal's strengths and challenges to usability. The strengths of the website were related to credibility, applicability, browsing function, design, and accessibility. The usability challenges included reluctance to register, process of registering, searching, terminology, and technical features.ConclusionsThe study reinforced the importance of including end users during the development of this unique, dynamic, evidence-based health information website. The feedback was applied to iteratively improve website usability. Our findings can be applied by designers of health-related websites.

Project description:BackgroundCaregivers of a family member with a chronic disability or illness such as dementia are at increased risk for chronic disease. There are many factors that contribute to dementia caregiver vulnerability and these factors can be challenging to assess in clinical settings. Self-rated health (SRH) is an independent measure of survival and physical health in the elderly. As an inclusive measure of health, SRH has been proposed as a reliable way to assess a patient's general health in primary care. Therefore, we sought to identify determinants of poor/fair SRH versus categories of at least good SRH in informal caregivers.MethodsIn a cross-sectional study, we examined 134 elderly (≥55 years) providing in-home care for a spouse with dementia who rated their own health with a single-item question: "In general, would you say your health is excellent, very good, good, fair or poor?". In a multivariable model, we compared caregivers with poor/fair SRH to those with good, very good, or excellent SRH on demographics, health characteristics (health behaviors, physical health indicators, psychosocial factors) and caregiving-specific stress (a composite index/total of four caregiving-specific stressors: years of caregiving, dementia severity, care recipient functional impairment and perceived caregiver burden).ResultsCompared with caregivers who rated their own health as either good (31.3%), very good (38.8%) or excellent (14.2%), caregivers with poor/fair SRH (15.7%) were more likely to have lower physical function and total greater caregiving-specific stress. More years of caregiving, severe dementia and care recipient functional impairment, but not perceived caregiver burden, were also more likely among caregivers with poor/fair SRH. Additionally, high negative affect and low positive affect were more likely in caregivers with poor/fair vs. good or excellent and very good or excellent SRH, respectively.ConclusionsCaregivers with poor/fair SRH were characterized by higher levels of medical comorbidity, low physical function, high negative, but low positive affect and longer duration of caregiving, as well as more severe dementia and greater functional impairment of the care recipient. These findings suggest that caregivers need to be more closely evaluated and targeted for preventive interventions in clinical practice.Trial registrationClinicalTrials.gov registration number: NCT02317523 .

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A Weekly, Evidence-Based Health Letter for Caregivers (90Second Caregiver): Usability Study.

Publications

A Weekly, Evidence-Based Health Letter for Caregivers (90Second Caregiver): Usability Study.

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