Hu, Haomin
(2025)
Developing a Multi-Component Mobile Health App to Provide Ongoing Support for Family Caregivers of People with Chronic Conditions and Disabilities.
Doctoral Dissertation, University of Pittsburgh.
(Unpublished)
Abstract
Over 20% of Americans, approximately 53 million adults, are family caregivers providing long-term care for an adult or a child, particularly those with chronic conditions and disabilities. While providing a valued service to relatives, family caregivers are at considerable risk of adverse physical, mental, and social health outcomes. Often starting their caregiving roles with minimal training and being tired of getting familiar with the role, they tend to neglect their own health to satisfy caregiving demands. Comprehensive and continuous support for family caregivers remains scarce. Mobile health apps have the potential to bridge the gap by providing multi-component portable support on caregiving skills, self-care, and socialization. This dissertation employs user-centered approaches throughout the process to develop and evaluate a mobile health app to support family caregivers of individuals with chronic conditions and disabilities on self-care and caregiving skill training. The app is tailored to assist with general and condition-specific caregiving and is adaptable for various family caregiver populations. Aligning with user-centered approach principles, one focus group, two co-design workshops, and one pilot test focusing on usability, accessibility, and feasibility were employed to examine the results. New FCG challenges and unmet needs were revealed from the dissertation studies. Additionally, feedback from participating family caregivers suggested design criteria and development guidelines, which took into account family caregiver needs, usability, accessibility, and security to inform the future development and iterations of this and similar family-caregiver-focused mobile health supports. After the pilot test, family caregivers indicated that the app is user-friendly, holds the potential to expand in future studies, and supports family caregivers in real-world settings.
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Details
| Item Type: |
University of Pittsburgh ETD
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| Status: |
Unpublished |
| Creators/Authors: |
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| ETD Committee: |
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| Date: |
25 February 2025 |
| Date Type: |
Publication |
| Defense Date: |
31 October 2024 |
| Approval Date: |
25 February 2025 |
| Submission Date: |
5 December 2024 |
| Access Restriction: |
No restriction; Release the ETD for access worldwide immediately. |
| Number of Pages: |
219 |
| Institution: |
University of Pittsburgh |
| Schools and Programs: |
School of Health and Rehabilitation Sciences > Rehabilitation Science |
| Degree: |
PhD - Doctor of Philosophy |
| Thesis Type: |
Doctoral Dissertation |
| Refereed: |
Yes |
| Uncontrolled Keywords: |
Mobile health, family caregivers, Chronic conditions and disabilities |
| Related URLs: |
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| Date Deposited: |
25 Feb 2025 16:02 |
| Last Modified: |
25 Feb 2025 16:02 |
| URI: |
http://d-scholarship.pitt.edu/id/eprint/47175 |
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