Key result
Convoy-Pal mobile app shows good usability in heart failure, scoring ~4.0 out of 5.
Why the study?
Few digital palliative care interventions target heart failure or patients' informal caregivers, family, and friends.
Observational (n=26)
No
A digital palliative care mobile intervention demonstrated high acceptability and usability for older adults with advanced heart failure and their caregivers, offering a novel approach to expanding palliative care access and self-management.
Perceived good usability of Convoy-Pal warrants further evaluation; leaves open effects on palliative care access or outcomes in advanced HF.
BACKGROUND: Heart failure is a leading cause of death among older adults. Digital health can increase access to and awareness of palliative care for patients with advanced heart failure and their caregivers. However, few palliative care digital interventions target heart failure or patients' caregivers, family, and friends, termed here as the social convoy. To address this need, the Social Convoy Palliative Care (Convoy-Pal) mobile intervention was developed to deliver self-management tools and palliative care resources to older adults with advanced heart failure and their social convoys. OBJECTIVE: The goal of the research was to test the acceptability and usability of Convoy-Pal among older adults with advanced heart failure and their social convoys. METHODS: Convoy-Pal includes tablet-based and smartwatch tools facilitating self-management and access to palliative care resources. Older adults and social convoy caregivers completed an acceptability and usability interview via Zoom, including open-ended questions and the Mobile Application Rating Scale: User Version (uMARS). Descriptive analysis was conducted to summarize the results of open-ended feedback and self-reported acceptability and usability. RESULTS: A total of 26 participants (16 older adults and 10 social convoy caregivers) participated in the interview. Overall, the feedback from users was good (uMARS mean 3.96/5 [SD 0.81]). Both older adults and social convoy caregivers scored information provided by Convoy-Pal the highest (mean 4.22 [SD 0.75] and mean 4.21 [SD 0.64], respectively). Aesthetics, functionality, and engagement were also perceived as acceptable (mean >3.5). Open-ended feedback resulted in 5 themes including improvements to goal setting, monitoring tools, daily check-in call feature, portal and mobile app, and convoy assessment. CONCLUSIONS: Convoy-Pal was perceived as acceptable with good usability among older adults with heart failure and their social convoy caregivers. With good acceptability, Convoy-Pal may ultimately lead to increased access to palliative care resources and facilitate self-management among older adults with heart failure and their social convoy caregivers.
No takes yet. Share an insight, caveat, or question.
Villalobos et al. (2022) conducted an observational in Advanced Heart Failure (n=26). Convoy-Pal mobile intervention was evaluated on Acceptability and usability (Mobile Application Rating Scale: User Version [uMARS] mean score). The Convoy-Pal mobile intervention was perceived as acceptable with good usability among older adults with heart failure and their caregivers, achieving an overall uMARS mean score of 3.96 out of 5.
Synapse has enriched 5 closely related papers on similar clinical questions. Consider them for comparative context: