Abstract
BackgroundMedication management among older adults continues to be a challenge, and innovative electronic medication adherence products have been developed to address this need.ObjectiveThe aim of this study is to examine user experience with electronic medication adherence products, with particular emphasis on features, usefulness, and preferences.MethodsOlder adults, caregivers, and health care providers tested the usability of 22 electronic medication adherence products. After testing 5 products, participants were invited to participate in a one-on-one interview to investigate their perceptions and experiences with the features, usefulness, and preference for electronic medication adherence products tested. The interviews were audio recorded, transcribed, and analyzed using exploratory inductive coding to generate themes. The first 13 interviews were independently coded by 2 researchers. The percentage agreement and Cohen kappa after analyzing those interviews were 79% and 0.79, respectively. A single researcher analyzed the remaining interviews.ResultsOf the 37 participants, 21 (57%) were older adults, 5 (14%) were caregivers, and 11 (30%) were health care providers. The themes and subthemes generated from the qualitative analysis included product factors (subthemes: simplicity and product features, including availability and usability of alarms, portability, restricted access to medications, and storage capacity) and user factors (subthemes: sentiment, affordability, physical and cognitive capability, and technology literacy and learnability).ConclusionsElectronic medication adherence products have the potential to enable independent medication management in older adults. The choice of a particular product should be made after considering individual preferences for product features, affordability, and the sentiment of the users. Older adults, caregivers, and health care providers prefer electronic medication adherence products that are simple to set up and use, are portable, have easy-to-access medication compartments, are secure, and have adequate storage capacity.
Highlights
The older adult population is increasing rapidly worldwide, with a projection of approximately 1.5 billion individuals aged 65 years or older by 2050 [1]
In addition to product usability, this study showed that stakeholders prefer electronic medication adherence products that accommodate complex medication regimens, incorporate alarms, are secure and portable, require minimal technology use, and are affordable
This study demonstrated that preference for a particular electronic medication adherence product depends on multiple factors, including, but not limited to, the storage capacity, security, cost, and size of the device
Summary
Background The older adult population is increasing rapidly worldwide, with a projection of approximately 1.5 billion individuals aged 65 years or older by 2050 [1]. The incidence of nonadherence is highly prevalent in the geriatric population because of multiple factors [5] As people age, they are diagnosed with multiple chronic health conditions that often require complex medication regimens, with multiple medications, various dosage forms, and complicated medication schedules [6]. Older adults face significant issues with medication management because of impaired functional capabilities, such as poor vision, hearing loss, dexterity issues, or cognitive capabilities [6,7,8]. These functional and cognitive capabilities are imperative for managing complex medication regimens; older adults with such deficits are at higher risk of medication mismanagement [9].
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