Free Mini-Tutorial: Bridging the Digital Health Divide: Helping Older Users with Mobile Health Technologies
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Abstract
This interactive workshop will provide practical strategies for both helping older adults use mobile health (mHealth) tools and for engaging older adults in the development of new tools. The objective is to share lessons learned for making mHealth tools more accessible to older adults.
We will begin with a demonstration of the mobile technology work-arounds recommended by older users including inexpensive assistive tools, system settings and design features. We will then explore approaches that can be used to recruit and engage older adults in systems design and user experience testing. A discussion will follow on the responsibilities that mHealth designers and mHealth developers have in creating accessible tools and that health professionals have as apomediaries for mHealth.
The premise of this workshop is that the popularity of mHealth tools and devices is exploding but there are certain populations that have more difficulties accessing new and emerging technologies than others. Individuals who are not online (also known as “non-liners”) are largely older and low income. The same population is disproportionately affected by chronic illness. While mobile touchscreen devices have made Internet-enabled technologies more affordable and usable, only one in five older adults currently uses a smartphone. Though many are interested in using new technologies to monitor or track their health, the tools and devices currently available are often designed for younger generations and fail to consider the age-related barriers to use including changes to vision, hearing, cognition and physical ability.
Over the past two years, we have worked with over 150 adults between the ages of 50 and 93 to explore the usability and usefulness of mHealth tools and devices from their perspectives. We used mixed methods approaches such as focus group testing sessions, the Systems Usability Scale and questionnaires built on the Technology Acceptance Model to examine touchscreen devices, mobile medication management applications and wearable activity trackers.
The overall goal of this workshop is to encourage clinicians, developers and researchers to consider how they may be contributing to the digital health divide for older and low income users and how they can help bridge the gap.
We will begin with a demonstration of the mobile technology work-arounds recommended by older users including inexpensive assistive tools, system settings and design features. We will then explore approaches that can be used to recruit and engage older adults in systems design and user experience testing. A discussion will follow on the responsibilities that mHealth designers and mHealth developers have in creating accessible tools and that health professionals have as apomediaries for mHealth.
The premise of this workshop is that the popularity of mHealth tools and devices is exploding but there are certain populations that have more difficulties accessing new and emerging technologies than others. Individuals who are not online (also known as “non-liners”) are largely older and low income. The same population is disproportionately affected by chronic illness. While mobile touchscreen devices have made Internet-enabled technologies more affordable and usable, only one in five older adults currently uses a smartphone. Though many are interested in using new technologies to monitor or track their health, the tools and devices currently available are often designed for younger generations and fail to consider the age-related barriers to use including changes to vision, hearing, cognition and physical ability.
Over the past two years, we have worked with over 150 adults between the ages of 50 and 93 to explore the usability and usefulness of mHealth tools and devices from their perspectives. We used mixed methods approaches such as focus group testing sessions, the Systems Usability Scale and questionnaires built on the Technology Acceptance Model to examine touchscreen devices, mobile medication management applications and wearable activity trackers.
The overall goal of this workshop is to encourage clinicians, developers and researchers to consider how they may be contributing to the digital health divide for older and low income users and how they can help bridge the gap.
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