A method to determine a personalized set of online exercises for improving the positive mental health of a caregiver of a chronically ill patient

BMC Medical Informatics and Decision Making

Aida Valls¹  Maria Ferré-Bergad๠ Laia Raigal-Aran²  Jael Lorca-Cabrera²  Núria Albacar-Riobóo²  Carme Ferré-Grau²  Teresa Lluch-Canut³ 

[1] Dept. Enginyeria Informàtica i Matemàtiques, Universitat Rovira i Virgili, Avda. Països Catalans, 26, 43007, Tarragona, Catalonia, Spain;Nursing Department, Universitat Rovira i Virgili, Avinguda Catalunya 35, 43002, Tarragona, Catalonia, Spain;Nursing Department, Universitat de Barcelona, Carrer de La Feixa Llarga S/N, 08907, L’Hospitalet de Llobregat, Barcelona, Spain;

关键词: Caregivers;    Positive mental health;    Mobile health;    Utility measurement;    Personalization;   

DOI  :  10.1186/s12911-021-01445-6

来源: Springer

【 摘 要 】

BackgroundTaking care of chronic or long-term patients at home is an arduous task. Non-professional caregivers suffer the consequences of doing so, especially in terms of their mental health. Performing some simple activities through a mobile phone app may improve their mindset and consequently increase their positivity. However, each caregiver may need support in different aspects of positive mental health. In this paper, a method is defined to calculate the utility of a set of activities for a particular caregiver in order to personalize the intervention plan proposed in the app.MethodsBased on the caregivers’ answers to a questionnaire, a modular averaging method is used to calculate the personal level of competence in each positive mental health factor. A reward-penalty scoring procedure then assigns an overall impact value to each activity. Finally, the app ranks the activities using this impact value.ResultsThe results of this new personalization method are provided based on a pilot test conducted on 111 caregivers. The results indicate that a conjunctive average is appropriate at the first stage and that reward should be greater than penalty in the second stage.ConclusionsThe method presented is able to personalize the intervention plan by determining the best order of carrying out the activities for each caregiver, with the aim of avoiding a high level of deterioration in any factor.

【 授权许可】

CC BY