JMIR Publications

ABSTRACT

Background:

A growing number of informal caregivers in many countries are important to the effective functioning of healthcare in our society. Hence, they must receive the required support and services to continue to provide care. It is known that IT applications can be used to support informal caregivers in their caregiving activities. However, evidence-informed guidelines for developing such IT applications and their evaluation are scarce. Hence, this scoping review can aid researchers and designers by providing design recommendations for IT applications for caregivers and potentially improve the design of IT applications for caregivers to meet their needs better.

Objective:

This study aims to describe a proposal for a scoping review of current practices and recommendations in designing and evaluating IT applications for informal caregivers. The scoping review will also discuss the opportunities and challenges in designing these IT applications.

Methods:

A 5-step scoping review methodology will be used to map relevant literature published as follows: (1) identify the research question, (2) identify relevant studies, (3) select relevant studies for review, (4) charted data from selected literature, and (5) summarized and reported results. A structured search will be conducted in PubMed, Scopus, IEEE digital library, Web of Science, and ACM Digital Library databases. In addition, hand searches of reference lists and keyword searches in Google Scholar will also be conducted. Inclusion criteria will be researched (journal and conference) articles focused on IT applications designed for use by informal caregivers and study type to be qualitative studies. Two reviewers will independently identify articles for review and extract data. Conflicts will be discussed, and a third reviewer will be consulted if a consensus cannot be reached. This data will be analyzed using thematic analysis.

Results:

The results from this scoping review will be presented in a narrative form, and additional data on study characteristics will be presented in diagrams or tabular format. Uppsala University first initiated this scoping review protocol in December 2021 as part of the EU-funded project ENTWINE. The results will be presented in August 2023 and will be disseminated through a report to the EU and a peer-reviewed journal publication. In addition, the team plans to share their findings on various public platforms, including social media, blog posts, and relevant conferences and workshops.

Conclusions:

This is, to our knowledge, the first study to map the literature on the design and evaluation of IT applications for informal caregivers. The scoping review's results will detail the requirements, design suggestions, and user preferences, as well as the usability criteria and features of IT applications for informal caregivers. A mapping of studies could inform the design and implementation of future IT applications for informal caregivers.