Accepted for/Published in: Journal of Medical Internet Research
Date Submitted: May 27, 2023
Date Accepted: May 24, 2024
Experiences of Community-dwelling Older Adults on Using Wearable Monitoring Devices with regular support from community health worker, nurse and social worker: A Qualitative Descriptive Study
ABSTRACT
Background:
The use of wearable monitoring devices (WMDs) is advancing support and care for community-dwelling older adults across the globe. Despite existing evidence of its importance in preventing problems and promoting health, significant concerns remain about their limited use after a period of time, which warrant an understanding of how older adults experience the devices.
Objective:
To explore and describe the experiences of community-dwelling older adults after receiving our interventional program, which included the use of a WMD with support from a community health worker, nurse and social worker, including the challenges that they experienced while using the device, the perceived benefits, and strategies to promote their sustained use of the device.
Methods:
We employed a qualitative descriptive approach in this study. Older adults who had taken part in an interventional study involving the use of wearable monitoring devices and who were receiving regular health and social support were invited to participate in focus group discussions at the end of the trial. Purposive sampling was employed to recruit potential participants. Older adults who agreed to participate were assigned to focus groups based on their community. The focus group discussions were facilitated and moderated by two members of the research team. All discussions were recorded and transcribed verbatim. We employed the constant comparison analytical approach to analyze the focus group data.
Results:
Twenty-two participants assigned to six focus groups participated in the study. Three themes and eight categories emerged from the data. The challenges experienced by older adults regarding the use of wearable devices were encapsulated as individual and system-related challenges. The perceived benefits of the devices were associated with self-monitoring, health promotion, and convenience. The findings also revealed a hierarchical pattern of health-seeking behaviors by older adults: first, from elderly volunteers, then social workers, and finally, nurses.
Conclusions:
Ongoing use of the devices is potentially possible, but it is important to ensure the availability of technical support, have ongoing active professional follow-ups by nurses and social workers, and to include elderly volunteers to support other older adults in such programs. Clinical Trial: This study was registered at clinicaltrials.gov (identifier: NCT05269303) on August 1, 2022.
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