@article{ref1,
title="Development and usability evaluation of VOICES: a digital health tool to identify elder mistreatment",
journal="Journal of the American Geriatrics Society",
year="2021",
author="Abujarad, Fuad and Ulrich, Davis and Edwards, Chelsea and Choo, Esther and Pantalon, Michael V. and Jubanyik, Karen and Dziura, James and D'Onofrio, Gail and Gill, Thomas M.",
volume="ePub",
number="ePub",
pages="ePub-ePub",
abstract="BACKGROUND/OBJECTIVES: A major barrier for society in overcoming elder mistreatment is an inability to accurately identify victims. There are several barriers to self-reporting elder mistreatment, including fear of nursing home placement or losing autonomy or a caregiver. Existing strategies to identify elder mistreatment neglect to empower those who experience it with tools for self-reporting. In this project, we developed and evaluated the usability of VOICES, a self-administrated digital health tool that screens, educates, and motivates older adults to self-report elder mistreatment. <br><br>DESIGN: Cross-sectional study with User-Centered Design (UCD) approach. SETTING: Yale School of Medicine and the Agency on Aging of South-Central Connecticut. PARTICIPANTS: Thirty eight community-dwelling and cognitively intact older adults aged 60 years and older, caregivers, clinicians, and social workers. INTERVENTION: A tablet-based self-administrated digital health tool that screens, educates, and motivates older adults to self-report elder mistreatment. MEASUREMENTS: Qualitative and quantitative data were obtained from: (1) focus groups participants including: feedback from open-ended discussion, demographics, and a post-session survey; (2) usability evaluation including: demographics, usability measures, comfortability with technology, emotional state, and open-ended feedback. <br><br>RESULTS: Focus group participants (n = 24) generally favored using a tablet-based tool to screen for elder mistreatment and expressed comfort answering questions on elder mistreatment using tablets. Usability evaluation participants (n = 14) overall scored VOICES a mean System Usability Scale (SUS) score of 86.6 (median = 88.8), higher than the benchmark SUS score of 68, indicating excellent ease of use. In addition, 93% stated that they would recommend the VOICES tool to others and 100% indicated understanding of VOICES' information and content. <br><br>CONCLUSION: Our findings show that older adults are capable, willing, and comfortable with using the innovative and self-administrated digital tool for elder mistreatment screening. Our future plan is to conduct a feasibility study to evaluate the use of VOICES in identifying suspicion of mistreatment.<p /> <p>Language: en</p>",
language="en",
issn="0002-8614",
doi="10.1111/jgs.17068",
url="http://dx.doi.org/10.1111/jgs.17068"
}