Orphanet

This NIHR-SSCR funded scoping review provides a comprehensive mapping of what is known about carers and caring, and aims to help inform policy, practice and research in relation to carers. The review was undertaken by searching 10 electronic bibliographic databases, supplemented by additional web searches to identify academic research, grey literature and wider knowledge. The analysis adopts a selective thematic approach covering: carer variables - the characteristics of different types of carer and different caring situations; types of care - the nature of needs of the cared for person and the features of the care situation; the impact of caring – resilience and coping, employment and health; and carer support and needs assessment. The final section highlights key messages identified from the review. It found that caring involves all sections and age groups of the population, with people are likely to experience one or more periods of caregiving over their lifetime. The uniqueness of each caring relationship is also highlighted. In relation to types of carers, knowledge about ‘hard to reach’ groups, such as BAME and LGBT carers, remains sparse. Older carers are also relatively invisible in policy and research terms. It found that much of the knowledge about carers identified in the review relates to their characteristics, their lived experience and the nature of their caregiving, with relatively less being known about the effectiveness of interventions to support them. The report concludes by offering suggestions for policy and practice. An appendix provides a bibliography of the 3,434 items identified in review, classified into 17 types of reference.

Seeing the wood for the trees. Carer related research and knowledge: A scoping review

A systematic review on the implementation of eHealth interventions for informal caregivers of people with dementia.

Assessing computerized eye tracking technology for gaining insight into expert interpretation of the 12-lead electrocardiogram: an objective quantitative approach

Background This review studies technology-supported interventions to help older adults, living in situations of reduced mobility, overcome loneliness, and social isolation. The focus is on long-distance interactions, investigating the (i) challenges addressed and strategies applied; (ii) technology used in interventions; and (iii) social interactions enabled. Methods We conducted a search on Elsevier's Scopus database for related work published until January 2020, focusing on (i) intervention studies supported mainly by technology-mediated communication, (ii) aiming at supported virtual social interactions between people, and (iii) evaluating the impact of loneliness or social isolation. Results Of the 1178 papers screened, 25 met the inclusion criteria. Computer and Internet training was the dominant strategy, allowing access to communication technologies, while in recent years, we see more studies aiming to provide simple, easy-to-use technology. The technology used was mostly off-the-shelf, with fewer solutions tailored to older adults. Social interactions targeted mainly friends and family, and most interventions focused on more than one group of people. Discussion. All interventions reported positive results, suggesting feasibility. However, more research is needed on the topic (especially randomized controlled trials), as evidenced by the low number of interventions found. We recommend more rigorous methods, addressing human factors and reporting technology usage in future research.

/pdf/a-systematic-review-on-technology-supported-interventions-to-5aza8h2oyn.pdf

A Systematic Review on Technology-Supported Interventions to Improve Old-Age Social Wellbeing: Loneliness, Social Isolation, and Connectedness.

Human observers with varying degrees of expertise interpret the 12-lead electrocardiogram (ECG) in different ways. In this work the authors investigate whether eye tracking can be used to gain an insight into how a human observer interprets the 12-lead ECG. A clinical scientist interpreted 29 ECGs whilst an eye tracking device was used to record eye movement patterns. The time dedicated to studying each lead across all 29 ECGs was recorded. The observer dedicated 26% of his time to studying the rhythm strip and only 1% of his time to studying lead aVR (t-test: p-value < 0.01). Eye tracking has the potential to provide an insight into how an individual observer interprets an ECG.

http://www.cinc.org/archives/2012/pdf/0581.pdf

Eye tracking in the assessment of electrocardiogram interpretation techniques

Online Social Networking has become one of the biggest successes of the Internet. Facebook is the most popular service with over 1.23 billion users. Online Social Networks have the potential to combat feelings of social isolation amongst the aging population. Nevertheless, many older people do not use online social networks given the barriers resulting from a lack of understanding and perceived usefulness. This paper presents the findings from a ten week training course were participants were trained in the use of Facebook and EasiSocial, a newly introduced web application which displays Facebook in a manner which is more suitable for older people. An evaluation study was undertaken of both applications in an effort to gain insight into the reasons why older people (50–80 years old) do not use social media. Findings demonstrated that EasiSocial was statistically easier to learn and easier to use than Facebook and therefore potentially helpful to increase the adoption of Social Media technologies.

EasiSocial: An Innovative Way of Increasing Adoption of Social Media in Older People

Online Social Networking (OSN) has become one of the biggest successes of the Internet. Facebook is the most popular service with over 800 million users. OSN have the potential to combat feelings of social isolation amongst the aging population. This study has investigated how people with differing levels of experience using OSN, within different age categories, are able to interact with the core features of Facebook. The goal has been to identify concessions and produce guidelines for designing an OSN for older people. This paper presents quantitative findings from a usability study which utilized eye tracking to observe 20 users' interactions with Facebook. The usability issues that were encountered and how these may be addressed to help older people with social isolation are discussed.

https://link.springer.com/content/pdf/10.1007%2F978-3-642-30779-9_30.pdf

A usability protocol for evaluating online social networks

Due to the successes in medical science people are now beginning to live much longer. With this brings increased problems associated with ageing, with one exemplar being dementia. Persons with dementia require care with activities of daily living, for example, with washing, dressing and eating. This requires additional care, which is usually provided by family and friends who assume the role of informal carers. Provision of care by informal carers brings irreversible changes to their lives that can lead to depression and feelings of loneliness. In part, these changes are linked with carers having insufficient understanding and training with dementia. The EU funded STAR project created an web portal that aims to provide the necessary online training that carers need, however, the usability of such a provision warrants investigation. This paper presents the findings of a usability test conducted on five carers of people with dementia while using the STAR Training Website. For the 21 usability issues identified, the paper outlines proposed solutions.

/pdf/an-investigation-into-the-usability-of-the-star-training-and-5e80o18qo7.pdf

An investigation into the usability of the STAR training and re-skilling website for carers of persons with dementia

How People Judge the Usability of a Desktop Graphic User Interface at Different Time Points: Is there Evidence for Memory Decay, Recall Bias or Temporal Bias?

Kyle Boyd

Papers

Eye tracking in the assessment of electrocardiogram interpretation techniques

EasiSocial: An Innovative Way of Increasing Adoption of Social Media in Older People

A usability protocol for evaluating online social networks

An investigation into the usability of the STAR training and re-skilling website for carers of persons with dementia

How People Judge the Usability of a Desktop Graphic User Interface at Different Time Points: Is there Evidence for Memory Decay, Recall Bias or Temporal Bias?