University of Twente Student Theses

Exploring expectations and experiences of informal and professional caregivers towards a smart monitoring and communication system for home-dwelling older adults with cognitive impairment: a formative evaluation

Grotenhuijs, K.T. (2023) Exploring expectations and experiences of informal and professional caregivers towards a smart monitoring and communication system for home-dwelling older adults with cognitive impairment: a formative evaluation.

PDF
1MB

Abstract:	Introduction: In the future, the number of people with cognitive impairment will increase, while people will live at home longer and the shortage in caregivers rises as well. Smart monitoring technologies have the ability to provide support to both professional and informal caregivers of home-dwelling older adults with cognitive impairment by providing insight into the situation of the individual. Additionally, these technologies can overcome the limitations commonly associated with other sensor technologies. A communication platform should be connected to the monitoring technology to inform caregivers about the situation of the care recipient. This study aims to explore the expectations of professional and informal caregivers towards implementation of a smart monitoring and communication system for home-dwelling older adults with cognitive impairment and to evaluate a low-fidelity prototype of such a system with informal caregivers. Methods: Six informal caregivers and seven professional caregivers of older adults with cognitive impairment who were living alone, participated in this study. The participants were recruited via email and informed consent was obtained prior to participation. This formative evaluation consisted of two parts: a low-fidelity (lo-fi) video prototype in which the functionalities of the smart monitoring system as a concept was explained and 2) a lo-fi clickable prototype of the user-interface of the communication platform. Individual semistructured interviews were performed with informal caregivers. This included an usability test of the user-interface prototype considering different care scenarios. Furthermore, two focus groups with professional caregivers were performed. The interviews and focus groups were audio-recorded and transcribed verbatim. The data was analyzed using a thematic analysis approach. Results: Informal and professional caregivers had various positive outcome expectations towards implementation of a smart monitoring system such as objective decision making and peace of mind. Also, some negative outcome expectations were mentioned, for example information overload and substitution of human contact. Good communication and agreements between informal and professional caregivers was considered to be important to successfully implement a smart monitoring system. This might require extra time and effort from professional caregivers. The user-interface prototype of the communication platform was experienced quite positive by informal caregivers for various care scenarios. Especially the personalization of the prototype was considered valuable. However, there were also improvements suggested regarding the visual design and conceptual workflow of the prototype. Conclusion: In order to successfully implement a smart monitoring and communication system for home-dwelling older adults with cognitive impairments a holistic approach in the design and implementation process is required. The outcomes of this study should be considered in this process. Future research could focus on evaluating a higher-fidelity prototype with relevant stakeholders in a real-life setting.
Item Type:	Essay (Master)
Faculty:	TNW: Science and Technology
Programme:	Health Sciences MSc (66851)
Link to this item:	https://purl.utwente.nl/essays/96386
Export this item as:	BibTeX EndNote HTML Citation Reference Manager

Show download statistics for this publication

Repository Staff Only: item control page