School of Journalism and Mass Communication, University of Wisconsin - Madison, Madison, WI, United States.
Center for Health Enhancement Systems Studies, University of Wisconsin - Madison, Madison, WI, United States.
JMIR Aging. 2024 Oct 30;7:e56923. doi: 10.2196/56923.
Older adults adopt and use eHealth systems to build autonomy, competence, and relatedness and engage in healthy behaviors. The motivational technology model posits that technology features, such as those on websites, smart displays, and mobile phones, must allow for navigability, interactivity, and customizability, which spur feelings of self-determination and intrinsic motivation. We studied ElderTree, an online system for older adults that provides on-demand videos of healthy living content, self-monitoring, and weekly researcher-hosted video meetings.
We aimed to understand the theoretical crossover between the motivational technology model and self-determination theory using features of ElderTree to understand the usability of the technology and how it may support older adults' autonomy, competence, and relatedness.
Drawing participants from a randomized controlled trial of a mobile health app for older adults with multiple chronic conditions, we conducted qualitative interviews with 22 older adults about their use of the app; the interviews were coded using qualitative thematic analysis.
Older adults did find that features within ElderTree such as content available on demand, good navigation, and weekly researcher-led video calls supported feelings of autonomy, competence, and relatedness, respectively. Individual differences such as a background using computers also influenced participants' experiences with the smart displays.
Participants confirmed the features that increased internal motivation, such as interactivity correlating with feelings of relatedness, but they also found other ways to support autonomous health behavior change beyond narrow views of navigability, interactivity, and customization.
老年人采用并使用电子健康系统来建立自主性、能力感和关联性，并参与健康行为。激励技术模型假设，网站、智能显示器和移动电话等技术功能必须允许可操作性、交互性和可定制性，从而激发自我决定感和内在动机。我们研究了 ElderTree，这是一个面向老年人的在线系统，提供按需播放的健康生活内容、自我监测和每周由研究人员主持的视频会议。
我们旨在通过 ElderTree 的功能理解激励技术模型和自我决定理论之间的理论交叉，以了解技术的可用性以及它如何支持老年人的自主性、能力感和关联性。
我们从一项针对患有多种慢性疾病的老年人的移动健康应用的随机对照试验中招募参与者，对 22 名老年人进行了关于他们使用该应用的定性访谈；访谈使用定性主题分析进行编码。
老年人确实发现 ElderTree 中的某些功能，例如按需提供内容、良好的导航和每周由研究人员领导的视频通话，分别支持自主性、能力感和关联性。个人差异，如使用电脑的背景，也会影响参与者对智能显示器的体验。
参与者证实了增加内在动机的功能，例如交互性与关联性相关，但他们也找到了支持自主健康行为改变的其他方法，而不仅仅是狭隘的可操作性、交互性和定制化观点。
