A Qualitative Assessment of an Ambient Display to Support In-Home Medication of Older Adults

Proceedings

Andrade, Ángel G.¹  Zarate-Bravo, Ernesto²  García-Vázquez, Juan-Pablo³  Rodríguez, Marcela D.⁴  Navarro, René F.⁵ 

[1] Author to whom correspondence should be addressed.;Departamento de Ingeniería Industrial, Universidad de Sonora, 83000 Hermosillo, Son., Mexico;Facultad de Enfermería, Universidad Autónoma de Baja California, 21100 Mexicali, B.C., Mexico;Facultad de Ingeniería, Universidad Autónoma de Baja California, 21100 Mexicali, B.C., Mexico;Presented at the 12th International Conference on Ubiquitous Computing and Ambient Intelligence (UCAmI 2018), Punta Cana, Dominican Republic, 4–7 December 2018

关键词: older adults;    assistive technologies;    medication adherence;   

DOI  :  10.3390/proceedings2191248

学科分类：社会科学、人文和艺术（综合）

来源: mdpi

【 摘 要 】

Studies on ambient computing technologies have shown their potential for assisting older adults to manage medications. However, their results cannot be generalizable, since they were conducted in different settings. We assessed the feasibility of a Medication Ambient Display (MAD) to improve the medication adherence of low-income Mexican older adults with mild-cognitive impairment (MCI). Through semi-structured interviews to 11 dyads of older adults and family caregivers who used MAD, we identified the effects of the setting conditions in the adoption and use of our technology. Our results showed that older adults forgot less to medicate. However, we observed that seniors have risky medication-related behaviors as a consequence of the challenges impose by our setting, such as the lack of adequate pharmaceutical policies regarding the rational use of medicines and the follow-up on patients’ medication regimens. We outline design implications for developing ambient computing technology to reduce drug adverse events associated with these challenges.

【 授权许可】

CC BY