JMIR Publications

ABSTRACT

Background:

As the global population ages, there is increased interest in developing strategies to promote health and wellbeing in later life, thus enabling continued productivity, social engagement and independence. As older adults are using the Internet and technologies with greater frequency, proficiency, and confidence, health information technologies (HITs) now hold consider potential as a means to enable broader access to tools and services for the purposes of screening, treatment, routine outcome monitoring and ongoing maintenance of health for this demographic group.

Objective:

The InnoWell Platform is a digital tool co-designed with lived experience to facilitate better outcomes for people seeking mental health services. Having co-designed and configured a prototype of the InnoWell Platform with and for the older adults, this study sought to evaluate its usability and acceptability.

Methods:

Participants were adults aged 50 years and older who were invited to engage with the InnoWell Platform naturalistically (i.e. at their own discretion) for a period of 90-days. Additionally, they completed short web-based surveys at baseline regarding their background, health and mental wellbeing. After 90 days, participants were asked to complete web-based surveys evaluating the usability and acceptability of the prototyped InnoWell Platform, with the aim of informing the iterative re-design and development of this digital tool prior to implementation within a health service setting.

Results:

Nineteen participants consented to participate in the study; however, only the data from the 16 participants (mean age = 62.8 years, SD = 7.5, range 50-72) who completed at least part of the survey at 90-days were included in the analyses. Participants generally reported low levels of psychological distress and good mental wellbeing. In relation to the InnoWell Platform, usability scores were suboptimal. Though the InnoWell Platform was noted to be easy to use, participants had difficulty identifying the relevance of the tool for their personal circumstances. Ease of use, the comprehensive nature of the assessment tools, and the ability to track progress over time were favoured features of the InnoWell Platform, whereas the need for greater personalisation and improved mobile functionality were cited as areas for improvement.

Conclusions:

HITs, such as the InnoWell Platform, have tremendous potential to improve access to cost-effective and low intensity interventions at scale to improve and maintain mental health and wellbeing in later life. However, in order to promote adoption of and continued engagement with such tools, it is essential that these HITs are personalised and relevant for older adult end-users, accounting for differences in background, clinical profiles and levels of need.