Accepted for/Published in: Journal of Medical Internet Research
Date Submitted: Dec 23, 2019
Date Accepted: Mar 23, 2020
Working through Problems Separately and Together: Examining Textual Data from MoodTech, an Internet Intervention with a Peer Support Component for Older Adults with Depression
ABSTRACT
Background:
Technological interventions provide many opportunities for improving the health and quality of life of older adults. However, interaction with new technologies can also cause frustration. While these themes have been explored in extant research, much remains to be learned concerning how challenges of aging, technology use, and the experiences of participating in a social and learning environment are inter-related.
Objective:
In this paper, we perform qualitative analysis of collected data from MoodTech, a pilot study of an Internet intervention with a peer support component for older adults with symptoms of depression, to better understand participant experience of technological interventions, including the challenges and benefits that they experience over the course of these interventions.
Methods:
We employ an inductive qualitative analysis method based on grounded theory methodology and Interpretative Phenomenological Analysis to analyze participant textual data. This textual data was comprised of three main types: 1) assignments in which participants challenged their negative thoughts, 2) status updates and 3) comments in the peer support component of the intervention.
Results:
We present the results through three main themes: 1) the experiences of aging as seen through the participants’ comments; 2) the challenges participants experienced with using MoodTech; and 3) the benefits they derived from participating.
Conclusions:
This paper offers several substantive contributions concerning participant experience with iCBT interventions with a peer support component, and design considerations for developing complex technological interventions that are supportive of the challenges participants may experience due to aging and cognitive difficulties. First, technical issues encountered by older adults within the context of the intervention can interact with and exacerbate insecurities that they may experience in life, and it is important consider how intervention components might be designed to mitigate these issues. Second, peer support can be employed as a mechanism to facilitate communication, support, and collaborative problem solving among participants in an intervention. Insights from this article can inform iCBT interventions design for older adults. Clinical Trial: Name: Online Peer Networked Collaborative Learning for Managing Depressive Symptoms (MoodTech) Number: NCT02841787 URL: https://clinicaltrials.gov/ct2/show/NCT02841787
Citation
Request queued. Please wait while the file is being generated. It may take some time.
Copyright
© The authors. All rights reserved. This is a privileged document currently under peer-review/community review (or an accepted/rejected manuscript). Authors have provided JMIR Publications with an exclusive license to publish this preprint on it's website for review and ahead-of-print citation purposes only. While the final peer-reviewed paper may be licensed under a cc-by license on publication, at this stage authors and publisher expressively prohibit redistribution of this draft paper other than for review purposes.