ESR9: Balance in caregiving: an eHealth application to support decision-making

Objectives: To further develop a decision-making tool (i.e., a tool that helps caregivers to take control in the caregiving situation and to make choices in caregiving) to needs and wishes of different groups of caregivers

More and more eHealth programmes that aim to reduce burden in caregivers are being developed. One issue in designing technology is that different users may have different needs and wishes with respect to its design features. For example, do we need to design the tool (i.e., content, persuasiveness, usability) differently for caregivers with high and low eHealth literacy, for carers with different cultural backgrounds, for men and women? In this project, we will make use of a decision-making tool (i.e., a tool that helps caregivers to take control in the caregiving situation and to make choices in caregiving) that we are currently developing for caregivers in the palliative care (June 2018 – December 2019). We follow the persuasive system design (PSD) model, which defines technology features that will promote adherence (i.e., the degree to which individuals experience the content and system) and the persuasiveness of the system. However, adherence and persuasiveness may have to be promoted in different groups of caregivers in different ways. The ESR will examine this in a series of experiments with caregivers (end-users), including thinking aloud usability tests with caregivers. For example, participants interact with the prototypes by completing several predetermined tasks while verbalizing their thoughts out loud (‘thinking- aloud’ method). Usability is tested in terms of technical quality (i.e., ‘Is the application user-friendly, persuasive, and safe?’), content quality (i.e., ‘Is the content understandable, meaningful, and persuasive?’) and service quality (i.e., ‘Is the service adequately and timely provided and persuasive). To test what persuasive features work best for which caregivers, we will conduct experiments using factorial designs methods (MOST), with different PSD features. The PSD features to examine are based on the outcomes of the usability tests and persuasiveness questionnaires. We will do this research in different settings (across countries), to asses valid, efficient, reproducibility of evidence to design solutions that inspire and to create persuasive profiles.

Expected Results

This project will present guidelines for systematically examining design issues for developing eHealth for different caregiver groups, and provide solutions to a number of common issues for specific groups. We will gain more insight into barriers and facilitators to use eHealth in reducing caregiver burden.

Publications

Dang, S., Looijmans, A., Lamura, G., & Hagedoorn, M. (2024). Perceived life balance among young adult students: a comparison between caregivers and non-caregivers. BMC psychology, 12(1), 18.DOI: https://doi.org/10.1186/s40359-023-01500-z.

Dang, S., Looijmans, A., Sharma, N., Jansen, A. B., & Hagedoorn, M. (2024). Exploring the support needs of young adult caregivers, their issues, and preferences towards a web-based tool: a mixed-method study. BMC Digital Health, 2(1), 3.DOI: https://doi.org/10.1186/s44247-023-00057-6.

Dang, S., Looijmans A., Ferraris G., Giovanni L., Hagedoorn M. (2022). Exploring the needs of spousal, adult child and adult sibling informal caregivers : A mixed-method systematic review. Frontiers in Psychology, 13. https://dx.doi.org/10.3389%2Ffpsyg.2022.832974

Ferraris, G., Dang, S., Woodford, J., & Hagedoorn, M. (2021). The role of dyadic interdependence among non-spousal caregiving dyads: a systematic review. PROSPERO, CRD42020215259 Available from: https://www.crd.york.ac.uk/prospero/display_record.php?ID=CRD42020215259