Nie Qiong, Rogers Wendy A
University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign.
Proc Int Symp Hum Factors Ergon Healthc. 2022;11(1). doi: 10.1177/2327857922111006.
Health self-management could be challenging for older adults with disabilities and technology has great potential to support them for managing health activities. Assessing users' needs is a significant technique to develop useful technologies. However, studies overwhelmingly collected and analyzed qualitative data in smaller samples or quantitative data in populations with single type of disability. This study aimed to analyze a national level dataset to assess the frequency of and challenges with managing health activities in older population with and without disabilities and identify potential support solutions to provide guidance for technology interventions. In this study, 4,541 older adults from the National Health and Aging Trends Study were grouped into five sub-groups (non-disability, mobility, vision, hearing, multiple disability). The findings indicated lower participation in wellness activities (e.g., exercise) than disease management activities (e.g., taking medicines, going to medical appointment). Around one tenth of older adults reported difficulty with tracking medicines and 23.4%-64.3% of respondents reported being accompanied during medical appointments. Managing health activities was more challenging for older adults with mobility and multiple disabilities. They were more likely to have difficulties and receive assistance with managing these activities, including accessing online health information. In conclusion, needs of older adults to manage health varied across activities and for people with different types of disabilities. We provide direction for person-centered and tailored interventions to respond to these needs.
对于残疾老年人而言，健康自我管理可能具有挑战性，而技术在支持他们进行健康活动管理方面具有巨大潜力。评估用户需求是开发有用技术的一项重要技术。然而，以往的研究绝大多数是在较小样本中收集和分析定性数据，或者在单一类型残疾人群中收集和分析定量数据。本研究旨在分析一个国家级数据集，以评估有残疾和无残疾的老年人群体进行健康活动管理的频率及面临的挑战，并确定潜在的支持解决方案，为技术干预提供指导。在本研究中，来自国家健康与老龄化趋势研究的4541名老年人被分为五个亚组（无残疾、行动不便、视力障碍、听力障碍、多重残疾）。研究结果表明，与疾病管理活动（如服药、就医）相比，老年人参与健康促进活动（如锻炼）的比例较低。约十分之一的老年人表示在追踪药物方面存在困难，23.4%-64.3%的受访者表示就医时有陪同。对于行动不便和多重残疾的老年人来说，管理健康活动更具挑战性。他们在管理这些活动（包括获取在线健康信息）时更有可能遇到困难并需要得到帮助。总之，老年人管理健康的需求因活动不同以及残疾类型不同而有所差异。我们为以个人为中心的量身定制干预措施提供指导，以满足这些需求。
