Abstract
BackgroundCaregiving and self-care are challenging for Chinese immigrants in the United States due to limited accessible support and resources. Few interventions exist to assist Chinese immigrant caregivers in better performing self-care. To address this gap in the literature, our team developed the Care Me Too app to engage Chinese immigrant caregivers in self-care and conducted a user experience test to assess its usability and acceptability.ObjectiveThis paper aims to report the results of the app’s usability and acceptability testing with Chinese immigrant caregivers and to solicit participants’ feedback of the app design and functions.MethodsA total of 22 Mandarin-speaking Chinese caregivers participated in the study, which consisted of 2 parts: the in-lab testing and the 1-week at-home testing. In-depth face-to-face interviews and follow-up phone interviews were used to assess user experience of the app’s usability and acceptability and to solicit feedback for app design and functions. Directed content analysis was used to analyze the qualitative data.ResultsAmong the 22 participants, the average age was 60.5 (SD 8.1) years, ranging from 46 to 80 years; 17 (77%) participants were women and 14 (64%) had an associate degree or higher. Participants reported uniformly positive ratings of the usability and acceptability of the app and provided detailed suggestions for app improvement. We generated guidelines for mobile health (mHealth) app designs targeting immigrant caregivers, including weighing flexibility versus majority preferences, increasing text sizes, using colors effectively, providing engaging and playful visual designs and functions, simplifying navigation, simplifying the log-in process, improving access to and the content on the help document, designing functions to cater to the population’s context, and ensuring offline access.ConclusionsThe main contribution of this study is the improved understanding of Chinese caregivers’ user experiences with a language-appropriate mHealth app for a population that lacks accessible caregiving and self-care resources and support. It is recommended that future researchers and app designers consider the proposed guidelines when developing mHealth apps for their population to enhance user experience and harness mHealth’s value.
Highlights
Asian American and Pacific Islander Caregivers’ NeedsCaring for others can be rewarding and straining
According to a meta-analysis study in 2005, Asian American and Pacific Islander caregivers performed a higher number of caregiving tasks, were more depressed, had worse physical health, and used less formal support than White caregivers [6]
This paper aims to report the results of the app’s user experience testing with Chinese immigrant caregivers, in which existing literature is limited, and to solicit participants’ feedback for app design and functions
Summary
Asian American and Pacific Islander Caregivers’ NeedsCaring for others can be rewarding and straining. According to a meta-analysis study in 2005, Asian American and Pacific Islander caregivers performed a higher number of caregiving tasks, were more depressed, had worse physical health, and used less formal support than White caregivers [6]. Few interventions exist to assist Chinese immigrant caregivers in better performing self-care To address this gap in the literature, our team developed the Care Me Too app to engage Chinese immigrant caregivers in self-care and conducted a user experience test to assess its usability and acceptability. Conclusions: The main contribution of this study is the improved understanding of Chinese caregivers’ user experiences with a language-appropriate mHealth app for a population that lacks accessible caregiving and self-care resources and support. It is recommended that future researchers and app designers consider the proposed guidelines when developing mHealth apps for their population to enhance user experience and harness mHealth’s value
Sign-in/Register to view highlights & summary Sign-in/Register to access full text options 
Free) 
Talk to us
Join us for a 30 min session where you can share your feedback and ask us any queries you have
Schedule a call
