2,869 research outputs found

    Digital technology to deliver a lifestyle-integrated exercise intervention in young seniors – the PreventIT feasibility randomised controlled trial

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    Background: Behavioral change is the key to alter individuals' lifestyle from sedentary to active. The aim was to assess the feasibility of delivering a Lifestyle-integrated Functional Exercise programme and evaluate the delivery of the intervention by use of digital technology (eLiFE) to prevent functional decline in 61–70 year-old adults. Methods: This multicentre, feasibility randomized controlled trial was run in three countries (Norway, Germany, and the Netherlands). Out of 7,500 potential participants, 926 seniors (12%) were screened and 180 participants randomized to eLiFE (n = 61), aLiFE (n = 59), and control group (n = 60). eLiFE participants used an application on smartphones and smartwatches while aLiFE participants used traditional paper-based versions of the same lifestyle-integrated exercise intervention. Participants were followed for 12 months, with assessments at baseline, after a 6 month active trainer-supported intervention, and after a further 6 months of unsupervised continuation of the programme. Results: At 6 months, 87% of participants completed post-test, and 77% completed the final assessment at 12 months. Participants were willing to be part of the programme, with compliance and reported adherence relatively high. Despite small errors during start-up in the technological component, intervention delivery by use of technology appeared acceptable. No serious adverse events were related to the interventions. All groups improved regarding clinical outcomes over time, and complexity metrics show potential as outcome measure in young seniors. Conclusion: This feasibility RCT provides evidence that an ICT-based lifestyle-integrated exercise intervention, focusing on behavioral change, is feasible and safe for young seniors

    Defining digital joy-of-use criteria for seniors: a design approach to build motivational user experiences for older generation

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    The recent increase of aging population across Europe and the rest of the globe represents one of the most radical demographic changes in the history of humankind. The increase of ageing society will have a vast effect on governments, families, individuals and companies, humans getting older has deeply modified societies, making it possible that three or more generations live together within the same environment. Due to digital environments, it is important that the needs of older generations are adequately taken into account when it comes to modern communication. In recent years, there has been a lot of research on necessary usability standards within website development for the aged generation, however a functioning usability is not the only point to consider for a successful realization of a digital product. Therefore, the objective of this thesis is to identify which criteria in terms of Joy-of-Use can help to motivate older people to use digital applications. The results should contribute to provide additional recommendations for the development of the project “Never-too-old”. The underlying research in this thesis is divided in two parts, in the first part experts in the field of ageing society have been interviewed, to get a better understanding and validate the findings within the literature review. In the second part of the study, people over the age of 60 years have been interviewed, to understand which criteria of Joy-of-Use motivates them to use digital applications. The results show that especially the criteria stimulation of the intellect, identification with the product and arousal of curiosity play an important role within the analyzed target group

    Care Givers: Motivating and Enhancing Non-Profit Caregivers’ Experiences

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    The challenges of the aging world population continue to become more and more serious. Caregivers play a very important role in the caregiving system. There are different types of caregivers: family caregivers, who are typically a patient\u27s family member; and professional caregivers, who are trained and paid to care for their assigned patients. Another group yet are volunteer caregivers, the primary targeted user group of this research. Volunteer caregivers are both dramatically overlooked and making significant contributions to society. People who work as volunteer caregivers are mostly motivated by their kindness. Volunteer caregiving is typically a part-time job provided by a non-profit organization. Though such organizations may have unique systems, they often share many issues in common. Accordingly, this thesis’ aim is to enhance the experience and solve the problems encountered by volunteer caregivers. To achieve the goals, I completed some literature reviews, and market research to get the big picture of the current caregiving system and figure out the direction to go, where I found mentally stressed has been mentioned frequently. Then some user research has been done to identify the problem such as user interview emphatic study, observation, etc. Throughout the research process, the emphatic study gives me more insight into this design problem, where I basically try to be a volunteer caregiver in a non-profit caregiving organization. Based on all these research, then I made the user persona, and user journey map, where I figured out the problems that I need to solve are Lonely, lack of motivation, Communication, Mental health, Credibility and lack of information. Following several design processes and iterations, I developed a new caregiving system as the solution. Care Givers is a mobile application and smart nametag. With the help of the application, caregivers can work as a small team to provide services to a patient. They can take a shift or just work at the same time. Also, caregivers can share their photos, videos, and experiences with other users. What\u27s more, the smart nametag’s capacity to connect to the application efficiently establishes the caregivers’ credibility and ensures their safety. Care Givers offers these caregivers an improved user journey by creating a small team and supportive community in order to alleviate their reported loneliness. Also, the application provides all the information a caregiver needs

    A mobile application to enhance mobility of people with permanent or temporary mobility disability : a case study in Portugal

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    This paper presents a mobile application developed in conjunction with the City Hall from Viana do Castelo, a city in the north of Portugal. This application targets people with permanent or temporary reduced mobility and intends to show them information about taxi points, parking spaces and reference points in the city with the possibility to navigate to them using an optimized algorithm, based on routes defined for each segment (deaf people, visually impaired people, etc.). The Dijkstra?s algorithm was used to implement the shortestPath given an origin, destination and segment. In this paper we present implementation details as well as final layouts of the prototype. At the current moment, the application is ended and will soon enter in usability tests with the users.5311-8814-F0ED | Sara Maria da Cruz Maia de Oliveira PaivaN/

    Design Strategy for Integrated Personal Health Records: Improving the User Experience of Digital Healthcare and Wellbeing

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    This dissertation addresses the timely problem of designing Integrated Personal Health Records (PHR). The goal is to provide citizens with digital user experiences, sustainable and flexible enough, for gaining control over their personal health information in a seamless way. Most importantly, so that people are able to reflect and act upon their selfknowledge, towards the accomplishment of their good health and wellbeing. Towards this end, the Integrated PHR as an emerging model in the field of Health IT, was the framework that set this research forward on exploring how communication and collaboration between patients and providers can be improved, which naturally impacts the field of HCI. Acknowledging that today patients are the ones who own all that is recorded about their health data, this new model was object of a design strategy that shaped the results presented in this dissertation. These have showed how patients can have more control of their health over time, through a patient-centered, organic system, which has the ability of combining multiple sources of data both from patient and provider side. As this new type of PHR fosters the creation of integrated networks, this milestone was achieved in this research by interacting with cross-channel user experiences that took part of nationwide healthcare ecosystems. The work presented herein, has demonstrated through the analysis and development of two use cases in cooperation with organizations connected to the Portuguese Ministry of Health, how an Integrated PHR can be a powerful personal tool, to be used by the citizen with undeniable value to the demands of an aging society. The use cases structured the thesis into two parts. The first part in collaboration with the Portuguese National Patient Portal, combines an Integrated PHR and incorporates the Portuguese Data Sharing Platform (PDS), which can be used by any Portuguese citizen. This use case study led to a proposal of the portal by also creating a foundational model for designing Integrated PHRs. The second part in collaboration with the Portuguese National Senior Telehealth Program (SaĂşde 24 SĂ©nior), led to another proposal for an Integrated PHR, applying the outcomes from Part 1 and the requirements that derived from the findings explored in this second use case study. The proposed solution, has the potential to be used by the Portuguese senior community in the scope of home assistive care. Both proposals applied a user experience design methodology and included the development of two prototypes. The engagement of the stakeholders during the two case studies was accomplished with participatory design methods and followed a multidisciplinary approach to create solutions that would meet the human, politics and behavior interdependencies that were inherent to the process of working with large healthcare organizations. The provided contributions from this thesis intent to be part of a transition process that is changing the behavior of the healthcare sector, which is increasingly moving towards the improvement of the patient-provider relationship, patient engagement, collaborative care and positive computing, where digital technologies play a key role

    The relationship between internet usage habits and student achievement

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    The invention of the Internet has brought countless advancements in communication, research, knowledge, and entertainment. Over the course of time, and as the Internet expanded, there have been mixed opinions in regard to the Internet’s place in schools. This has brought on the need for schools to develop policies to monitor and regulate student Internet activity in order to teach students to use the Internet as a tool to increase academic achievement. Michigan has consistently been one of the lowest performing states in regard to the SAT; thus, it is important for teachers and administrators to determine why. Through an Internet use survey adapted from The Pew Research Center’s Internet and Technology report titled “Teens, Social Media & Technology Overview 2015,” this study surveyed 12th grade students at Blueville High School in Blueville, MI, to determine their levels of Internet access, Internet usage habits, and overall opinions of the Internet. Additionally, a focus group interview was conducted to further gain an understanding of Internet usage impact on student achievement. Survey results were compared to individual composite and component SAT scores, grade point averages, and socioeconomic factors (free/reduced lunch status). Results indicate some connection between Internet usage habits and student achievement, especially for those students who use the Internet for school-specific work

    Wearables at work:preferences from an employee’s perspective

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    This exploratory study aims to obtain a first impression of the wishes and needs of employees on the use of wearables at work for health promotion. 76 employ-ees with a mean age of 40 years old (SD ±11.7) filled in a survey after trying out a wearable. Most employees see the potential of using wearable devices for workplace health promotion. However, according to employees, some negative aspects should be overcome before wearables can effectively contribute to health promotion. The most mentioned negative aspects were poor visualization and un-pleasantness of wearing. Specifically for the workplace, employees were con-cerned about the privacy of data collection
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