Digital Interventions for Chronic Progressive Conditions
The missing link: Usability
Caring for individuals with chronic progressive conditions places significant demands on family caregivers. Understanding and supporting these caregivers have become crucial in the landscape of healthcare.
While caregivers play a pivotal role in bridging gaps within healthcare systems, their journey is riddled with stress, impacting their mental and physical well-being.
Interventions exist which are intended to support these caregivers. These interventions range from in-person programs to teleconferencing and digital tools. Computer-based technologies for interventions have the potential to offer innovative solutions, particularly in the current health and social care climate.
Yet, despite the promise of digital interventions, their design, implementation, and evaluation often overlook a critical aspect: usability.
Usability, encompassing effectiveness, efficiency, and user satisfaction, is a cornerstone in ensuring these tools are not only functional but also user-friendly and accessible.
A scoping review is underway which seeks to address the gap by exploring whether usability considerations are incorporated in the design and assessment of these technologies which are aimed at family caregivers of those with chronic progressive conditions.
By assessing the presence and impact of usability features in these interventions, the scoping review aims to guide the development and implementation of technology tools to enhance caregivers' experiences and, ultimately, the well-being of individuals with chronic progressive conditions.
The scoping review protocol is available in the December 2023 issue of JBI Evidence Synthesis:
Exploring usability characteristics in computer-based digital health technologies for family caregivers of people with chronic progressive conditions: a scoping review protocol
Fakolade, Afolasade; Cardwell, Katherine L.; Ross-White, Amanda; Broitman, Emily; Chow, Emma; Hume, Taylor A.; Keeling, Mariah; Ludgate, Julia; Pilutti, Lara A.
JBI Evidence Synthesis 21(12):p 2413-2421, December 2023. | DOI: 10.11124/JBIES-23-00010