College of Computing and Digital Media, DePaul University, Chicago, IL, United States.
Department of Information Systems and Operations Management, University of Texas at Arlington, Arlington, TX, United States.
JMIR Mhealth Uhealth. 2021 Mar 17;9(3):e24755. doi: 10.2196/24755.
Caregiving responsibility can change caregivers' lives; modify their emotions; and make them feel frustrated, fearful, and nervous, thereby imposing physical and mental stress. Caregiving-related mobile apps provide a platform for obtaining valuable and trusted information, connecting more easily with other caregivers, monitoring medications, and managing appointments, and assessing health requirements and conditions of care receivers. Such apps also incorporate valuable resources that address care for the caregivers. Despite the potential benefits of caregiving-related apps, only a limited number of caregivers have adopted and used them.
The aim of this study is to explore the important factors that affect caregivers' intentions to integrate related mobile apps into their routine caregiving responsibilities.
Using the protection motivation theory, we conducted a cross-sectional study among 249 participants. Purposive sampling was used to target participants who met 4 inclusion criteria: US residents, owning and using a smartphone, informal caregivers (individuals who give care to a friend or family member without payment) who provided at least 8 hours of care per week in the past year, and those currently not using any mobile app for caregiving purposes. We created a survey using Qualtrics and posted it on Amazon's Mechanical Turk website. Participants received monetary compensation after successful completion of the survey.
We found that capabilities and skills of caregivers to use mobile apps, the app's effectiveness in responding to the needs of caregivers, the degree of control of caregivers over their responsibilities, and the decisions they make for their care receivers can predict their willingness to adopt caregiving-related apps. In addition, the severity of health status and vulnerability of care receivers to unexpected health changes indirectly shape their caregivers' decisions to adopt and use mobile apps for caregiving purposes.
This study explores the important factors that affect informal caregivers' intentions to adopt related mobile apps into their routine caregiving responsibilities. The results contribute to both mobile health adoption and the caregiving literature, and they offer significant implications for developers, health care practitioners, and policy makers.
照顾责任可以改变照顾者的生活；改变他们的情绪；使他们感到沮丧、恐惧和紧张，从而给他们带来身心压力。与照顾相关的移动应用程序为获取有价值和值得信赖的信息提供了一个平台，使他们更容易与其他照顾者联系，监测药物，管理预约，评估照顾接受者的健康需求和状况。这些应用程序还包含了宝贵的资源，以解决照顾者的照顾问题。尽管与照顾相关的应用程序有潜在的好处，但只有有限数量的照顾者采用并使用它们。
本研究旨在探讨影响照顾者将相关移动应用程序整合到日常照顾责任中的重要因素。
本研究使用保护动机理论，对 249 名参与者进行了横断面研究。采用目的抽样法，选取符合以下 4 项纳入标准的参与者：美国居民、拥有和使用智能手机、非专业照顾者（指为朋友或家人提供无偿照顾，每周照顾时间不少于 8 小时的个人），且在过去一年中没有使用任何移动应用程序进行照顾，以及目前没有使用任何移动应用程序进行照顾的人。我们使用 Qualtrics 创建了一个调查，并将其发布在 Amazon 的 Mechanical Turk 网站上。参与者在成功完成调查后获得金钱补偿。
我们发现，照顾者使用移动应用程序的能力和技能、应用程序对照顾者需求的响应有效性、照顾者对自己责任的控制程度以及他们为照顾接受者做出的决策，都可以预测他们采用照顾相关应用程序的意愿。此外，照顾接受者健康状况的严重程度和对意外健康变化的脆弱性也会间接影响他们的照顾者采用和使用移动应用程序进行照顾的决策。
本研究探讨了影响非专业照顾者将相关移动应用程序整合到日常照顾责任中的重要因素。研究结果既有助于移动健康的采用，也有助于照顾文献的发展，为开发者、医疗保健从业者和政策制定者提供了重要的启示。
