HealthCore Inc, Wilmington, DE, United States.
Anthem Inc, Indianapolis, IN, United States.
J Med Internet Res. 2022 Apr 11;24(4):e28504. doi: 10.2196/28504.
Mobile technology to address caregiver needs has been on the rise. There is limited evidence of effectiveness of such technologies on caregiver experiences.
This study evaluates the effectiveness of ianacare, a mobile app, among employees of a large employer. ianacare mobilizes personal social circles to help with everyday tasks. Through the use of ianacare, we evaluate the associations between coordinating caregiving tasks among a caregiver's personal support network and outcomes related to the caregiver's support system, time use, perceived productivity, and perceived health and well-being. Caregiver tasks include tasks such as meal preparation, respite care, pet care, and transportation. Time use is the measure of a caregiver's time spent on caregiving tasks and how much time they had to take off from work to attend planned or unplanned caregiving tasks.
We conducted 2 surveys to assess within-participant changes in outcomes for the unpaid, employed, caregivers after 6 weeks of using the mobile app (n=176) between March 30, 2020, and May 11, 2020. The surveys contained questions in three domains: the caregiver's support system, time use and perceived productivity, and perceived health and well-being. The results of the linear probability models are presented below.
App use was significantly associated with decreasing the probability of doing most caregiving tasks alone by 9.1% points (SE 0.04; P=.01) and increasing the probability of at least one person helping the primary caregiver by 8.0% points (SE 0.035; P=.02). App use was also associated with improving the time use of the primary caregiver who took significantly less time off work to attend to caregiving duties by 12.5% points (SE 0.04; P=.003) and decreased the probability of spending more than 30 hours weekly on caregiving by 9.1% points (SE 0.04; P=.02). Additional findings on the positive impact of the app included a decrease in the probability of reporting feeling overwhelmed by caregiving tasks by 12.5% points (SE 0.04; P=.003) and a decrease in the probability of reporting negative health effects by 6.8% points (SE 0.04; P=.07) because of caregiving. Although subjects reported that COVID-19 increased their stress attributed to caregiving and prevented them from requesting help for some caregiving tasks, using the app was still associated with improvements in receiving help and lessening of the negative effects of caregiving on the caregivers.
App use was associated with improvements in 7 of 11 caregiver outcomes across three main categories: their support system, time spent on caregiving, and perceived health and well-being. These findings provide encouraging evidence that the mobile app can significantly reduce caregiver burden by leveraging a caregiver's support network despite the additional challenges brought by COVID-19 on caregivers.
用于满足照护者需求的移动技术日益增多。但此类技术对照护者体验的有效性的证据有限。
本研究评估了 ianacare 移动应用程序在大型雇主员工中的有效性。ianacare 可调动个人社交圈来帮助完成日常任务。通过使用 ianacare，我们评估了在照护者的个人支持网络中协调照护任务与与照护者支持系统、时间利用、感知生产力以及感知健康和幸福感相关的结果之间的关联。照护任务包括准备膳食、暂托护理、宠物护理和交通等。时间利用是衡量照护者花在照护任务上的时间以及他们因计划内或计划外的照护任务而不得不休假的时间。
我们在 2020 年 3 月 30 日至 2020 年 5 月 11 日之间，对 176 名使用移动应用程序 6 周后的非付费、在职照护者进行了两次调查，以评估参与者在结果方面的变化。调查包含三个领域的问题：照护者的支持系统、时间利用和感知生产力以及感知健康和幸福感。以下呈现线性概率模型的结果。
应用程序的使用与独自完成大多数照护任务的可能性降低 9.1%有关（SE 0.04；P=.01），与至少有一人帮助主要照护者的可能性增加 8.0%有关（SE 0.035；P=.02）。应用程序的使用还与主要照护者的时间利用改善有关，他们因照护任务而休假的时间减少了 12.5%（SE 0.04；P=.003），每周花在照护上的时间超过 30 小时的可能性降低了 9.1%（SE 0.04；P=.02）。应用程序的积极影响的其他发现包括因照护任务而感到不知所措的可能性降低了 12.5%（SE 0.04；P=.003），以及因照护而导致负面健康影响的可能性降低了 6.8%（SE 0.04；P=.07）。尽管研究对象报告称 COVID-19 增加了他们对照护的压力，并阻止他们为一些照护任务寻求帮助，但使用该应用程序仍然与获得帮助和减轻照护对照护者的负面影响有关。
应用程序的使用与 11 项照护者结果中的 7 项改善有关，涵盖三个主要类别：他们的支持系统、照护时间和感知健康和幸福感。这些发现提供了令人鼓舞的证据，表明尽管 COVID-19 给照护者带来了额外的挑战，但该移动应用程序仍可以通过利用照护者的支持网络显著减轻照护者的负担。
