Accepted for/Published in: JMIR Aging
Date Submitted: May 5, 2022
Open Peer Review Period: May 5, 2022 - Jun 30, 2022
Date Accepted: Aug 29, 2022
(closed for review but you can still tweet)
Warning: This is an author submission that is not peer-reviewed or edited. Preprints - unless they show as "accepted" - should not be relied on to guide clinical practice or health-related behavior and should not be reported in news media as established information.
Elderly wheelchair users recommend age-friendly design improvements to a mHealth wheelchair maintenance application
ABSTRACT
Background:
Preventative wheelchair maintenance reduces wheelchair failures and prevents user consequences. The authors are developing a smartphone app that alerts users when maintenance is due to encourage maintenance practices and compliance.
Objective:
Collect qualitative and quantitative data on older adults' interaction experience with the WheelTrak app and perceived barriers to maintenance.
Methods:
Interviews with stakeholders, including mobility device users, to generate app specifications. Usability testing and semi-structured interviews were conducted with elderly wheelchair and scooter users (n=12). The System Usability Scale (SUS) was administered.
Results:
Nine participants agreed they would use WheelTrak for preventative maintenance. WheelTrak scored an average SUS score of 60.5. Four overarching themes were identified: 1) WheelTrak app improvements, 2) Barriers to maintenance, 3) Consequences related to mobility device failure, and 4) Smart technology use and acceptance. Older adults preferred simplicity, readability, personalization and educational resources in the app for better usability. Barriers to maintenance pertain to health issues and lack of maintenance knowledge among the elderly.
Conclusions:
The WheelTrak app has close to average system usability. This study highlighted age-friendly design improvements to the app, making it easier to use and adopt by elderly wheelchair users. Additional usability testing will be conducted following app revision.
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.