A Usability Evaluation Instrument for Pain Management Mobile Applications: An Elderly’s Perspective

Abstract

Technology offers new opportunities in healthcare to manage chronic conditions cost-effectively. In the adoption of mHealth services, one of the main barriers is usability, especially for users having limitations or special needs, such as the elderly. Unlike mHealth apps specifically designed for the elderly to monitor and manage chronic conditions such as cardio-vascular health, diabetes, and hypertension, there is a lack of research in pain management, including usability evaluation. Moreover, there is a lack of comprehensive usability evaluation tool. This research focuses on the formulation and assessment of the usability evaluation instrument for the mHealth apps, targeting elderly users. An instrument comprising 8 usability constructs and 58 distinct items was formulated. The content of the instrument was verified by five experts. Face validity was performed with 16 elderly pain sufferers on pre-selected pain apps, it also aids in validating the reliability of the instrument. The research also discusses the mapping of the instrument’s items with the usability measures and elderly barriers influencing technology, with graphical visualization and scores of various artefacts. The graphical details would be helpful in identifying the areas for usability improvement from the elderly’s perspective and the scores would be helpful in comparing usability of different applications.