We think it's important to share our findings

Authors

Doyle, J., Murphy, E., Kuiper, J., Smith, S., Hannigan, C., Jacobs, A. and Dinsmore, J.

Older adults with multiple chronic conditions (multimorbidity) face complex self-management routines, including symptom monitoring, managing multiple medications, coordinating healthcare visits, communicating with multiple healthcare providers and processing and managing potentially conflicting advice on conditions. While much research exists on single disease management, little, if any research has explored the topic of technology to support those with multimorbidity, particularly older adults, to self-manage with support from a care network. This paper describes a large qualitative study with 125 participants, including older adults with multimorbidity and those who care for them, across two European countries. Key findings related to the impact of multimorbidity, complexities involved in self-management, motivators and barriers to self-management, sources of support and poor communication as a barrier to care coordination. We present important concepts and design features for a digital health system that aim to address requirements derived from this study.

Authors

Wilson, M., Doyle, J.

Stress is prevalent among older informal carers and has been shown to lead to negative developments in physical and psychological health, as well as overall wellbeing. One area of wellbeing that can be impacted is sleep, with high stress levels leading to poor sleep and poor sleep causing stress. Mindfulness-based interventions (MBIs) have grown in popularity in recent years and have been shown to reduce stress and increase quality of life among older informal carers. MBIs delivered digitally have the potential to be used by and be of benefit to a wide group of people. Based on the apparent gaps in the literature concerning the area of mobile device/computer-mediated MBIs for older informal carers, further research is needed in this area. An opportunity also lies in the use of wearable activity trackers to monitor any potential improvements in sleep, due to reduced stress. This paper focuses on the design of a digital application delivering MBIs, to support older informal carers to manage stress and sleep. We describe a qualitative study with older informal carers and the resulting digital application while outlining how this system will be trialled with 15 older informal carers over a 12-week period with a view to reducing stress and improving overall wellbeing.

Authors

McQuaid, D., Doyle, J.

As the number of older adults in our society increases, a greater demand is put on our healthcare systems. This increasing demand on healthcare and especially on the front-line care-givers and professionals has led to a greater need for individual patients to actively engage in personal behaviour change to manage their conditions and improve their quality of life. The Human Computer Interaction Community has a growing body of research pertaining to the many and varied ways that Behavioural Change Techniques have been integrated into digital applications and intervention systems. However, it has been noted that the limitations as to how these interventions have been evaluated has led to the existing research having little impact. This study will explore the design strategies and theories that currently exist regarding implementing digital BCTs and will concentrate on why do these types of interventions work, if they work at all?

Authors

Doyle, J., Murphy, E., Hannigan, C., Smith, S., Bettencourt-Silva, J., Dinsmore, J.

Older people with multiple chronic conditions face significant challenges self-managing health and wellbeing. Digital behaviour change interventions can motivate and empower self-management. Goal-setting, combined with progress feedback, is a technique often used in such interventions. However, there is little knowledge of digital goal-setting practices of older people, particularly those with multiple complex health conditions. In this paper, we describe an extensive qualitative study with older people with multiple chronic conditions and members of their care network, exploring issues around current practices setting and meeting health and wellbeing goals. Our findings indicate that there are unique challenges for this cohort that may prevent them from setting and meeting goals, including lack of support and feedback, and the impact of their illnesses. We outline a series of digital design features to address challenges relating to goals for this cohort, highlighting those specific to multimorbidity.

Authors

Murphy E., Doyle J., Hannigan C., Smith S., Kuiper J, Jacobs A., Hoogerwerf EJ., Desideri L., Fiordelmondo V., Maluccelli L., Brady AM., Dinsmore J.

Digital technologies hold great potential to improve and advance home based integrated care for older people living with multiple chronic health conditions. In this paper, we present the results of a user requirement study for a planned digital integrated care system, based on the experiences and needs of key stakeholders. We present rich, multi-stakeholder, qualitative data on the perceptions and use of technology among older people with multiple chronic health conditions and their key support actors. We have outlined our future work for the design of the system, which will involve continuous stakeholder engagement through a user-centred co-design method.

Authors

Doyle, J., McGee, S.

Authors

Dinsmore, J., Murphy, E., Hannigan, C., Smith, S., Doyle, J.