Accepted for/Published in: JMIR Rehabilitation and Assistive Technologies
Date Submitted: Jan 20, 2025
Date Accepted: May 6, 2025
Exploring Rehabilitation Patients' Perspectives on What Matters for the Adoption of Home-Based Rehabilitation Technology: A Q-Methodology Study
ABSTRACT
Background:
Rehabilitation technologies can support recovery and rehabilitation outside clinical settings. However, their adoption remains challenging. Factors such as ease of use, perceived benefits, and social influence play a role, but little is known about how rehabilitation patients perceive their relative importance.
Objective:
This study aimed to systematically explore rehabilitation patients' preferences for home-based rehabilitation technology using Q-methodology
Methods:
Between May and September 2024, this study examined the viewpoints of rehabilitation patients with acquired brain injuries regarding the adoption of home-based rehabilitation technologies. A purposive sample of 21 participants ranked 34 opinion statements based on perceived importance and explained their choices during follow-up interviews. By-person factor analysis identified common patterns in how participants ranked the statements. These patterns, referred to as factors or viewpoints, were further interpreted using qualitative interview data.
Results:
Three viewpoints were identified, each highlighting different factors important for adopting home-based rehabilitation technologies: (1) Technology Supporting Rapid Recovery, (2) Technology Supporting Independence and Self-Control, and (3) Technology as a Supporting Partner. Participants consistently emphasised the importance of regaining independence, receiving feedback during exercises, having simple, easy-to-use designs and therapists’ approval, while media influence, support from friends, and reducing travel to rehabilitation centres were considered less important.
Conclusions:
The findings suggest that rehabilitation patients with acquired brain injuries prioritise different factors when adopting home-based rehabilitation technologies. While some factors are commonly valued, the diversity in patient preferences underscores the need for tailored, user-centred approaches in the design and implementation of these technologies. A one-size-fits-all approach would likely be ineffective in meeting their varying needs.
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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.