Sin Jacqueline, Woodham Luke A, Henderson Claire, Williams Elen, Sesé Hernández Aurora, Gillard Steve
Population Health Research Institute, St George's, University of London, UK.
School of Psychology & Clinical Language Sciences, University of Reading, UK.
Digit Health. 2019 Aug 28;5:2055207619871148. doi: 10.1177/2055207619871148. eCollection 2019 Jan-Dec.
Existing research suggests that eHealth interventions targeting family carers of individuals with long-term illness offer a promising approach to care delivery. In particular, digital psychoeducational interventions with interactive psychosocial support are well-received with high rates of satisfaction and acceptability. However, development of such interventions for psychosis carers is lacking. We developed a multi-component eHealth intervention specifically for carers of individuals affected by psychosis, called COPe-support (Carers fOr People with Psychosis e-support).
Using mixed methods to evaluate usability, system heuristics and perceived acceptability, we conducted a usability study to establish the suitability of the intervention prototype for the target user group.
Twenty-three carers were recruited to the study and participated in a think-aloud test or a remote online trial of the intervention. Qualitative feedback, post-use System Usability Scale (SUS) scores, and real-world usage data collected from the tests were analysed. These were also supplemented with heuristic evaluation data provided by an independent eLearning technology expert.
Participants evaluated the intervention content as useful and helpful, and indicated that the system had satisfactory usability with a mean SUS score of 73%, above the usability quality benchmark threshold. Study results identified some minor usability issues, which were corroborated with the eLearning expert's heuristic evaluation findings. We used these results to refine the COPe-support intervention.
The usability study with end-users and service providers identified real-life usage and usability issues. The study results helped us refine COPe-support and its delivery strategy before its launch as part of a large-scale clinical trial.
现有研究表明，针对慢性病患者家庭护理者的电子健康干预措施为护理服务提供了一种很有前景的方法。特别是，具有交互式心理社会支持的数字心理教育干预措施受到广泛欢迎，满意度和可接受率很高。然而，针对精神病患者护理者的此类干预措施尚不完善。我们专门为受精神病影响者的护理者开发了一种多组件电子健康干预措施，称为COPe-support（精神病患者护理者电子支持）。
我们采用混合方法评估可用性、系统启发式方法和感知可接受性，进行了一项可用性研究，以确定干预原型对目标用户群体的适用性。
招募了23名护理者参与研究，并参加了该干预措施的出声思考测试或远程在线试验。对定性反馈、使用后系统可用性量表（SUS）得分以及从测试中收集的实际使用数据进行了分析。这些数据还得到了一位独立的电子学习技术专家提供的启发式评估数据的补充。
参与者认为干预内容有用且有帮助，并表示该系统具有令人满意的可用性，平均SUS得分为73%，高于可用性质量基准阈值。研究结果发现了一些小的可用性问题，这些问题得到了电子学习专家启发式评估结果的证实。我们利用这些结果对COPe-support干预措施进行了完善。
与最终用户和服务提供者进行的可用性研究确定了实际使用情况和可用性问题。研究结果帮助我们在将COPe-support作为大规模临床试验的一部分推出之前，对其进行了完善，并优化了其交付策略。
