Develop mobile health applications that account for caregiver age and technology familiarity¶

Strategy · All strategies
Evidence · 3 claims (3 for) · 1 study (1 review), q2 · 0 of 1 report an effect size · 3 claims rest on one study

Description¶

The review recommends that developers of mobile health applications for informal caregivers consider age-related differences in technology familiarity during development. It reports that "Older people and those with less education tend to be disadvantaged in the use of communication and information technologies" and concludes that applications accounting for "aspects related to the age group and their relationship with technology" have promising potential to support caregiver learning.

Design Implications¶

Context¶

Requirements¶

• Applications must be designed to account for caregiver age group and technology familiarity

Constraints¶

• Older people and those with less education tend to be disadvantaged in the use of communication and information technologies

Target Learners¶

• Informal caregivers of adults, children, and elderly people

Target Learning Goals¶

• Health information seeking
• Patient care skills
• Self-directed learning

Claims¶

• Smartphone access among informal caregivers ranges from 61% to 99% depending on country [+W]
• Internet access and trust in information are the main barriers to caregiver self-directed learning via mobile health [+W]
• Caregivers with low confidence in their own health are more likely to seek health information online [+W]

Related Strategies¶

• Investigate the quality of learning acquired through the internet in future studies
• Provide professional training to informal caregivers in the technology when implementing e-learning support
• Incorporate internet and widely used smartphone applications into future EBP teaching to foster online interactive learning and engagement

Examples¶

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Key Sources¶

• Pereira Dauster Souza; Pereira Priscilla Perez da Silva. (2025). Self-directed learning of informal caregivers using mobile health: a systematic review. BMC Health Services Research. https://doi.org/10.1186/s12913-025-13019-7