Supporting family care: a scoping app review

Abstract

Background Mobile applications (apps) may provide family caregivers of people with chronic diseases and conditions with access to support and good information. However, thorough understanding of how these apps meet the main needs and requirements of the users is currently lacking. The aim of this study was to review the currently available apps for family caregivers and evaluate their relevance to main domains of caregiving activities, caregivers’ personal needs, and caregivers’ groups found in previous research on family caregivers. Methods We conducted a scoping review on English-language and German-language apps for family caregivers on two major app stores: Google Play Store and iOS App Store. Apps were included if the main target group were family caregivers. Data were extracted from the app descriptions provided by the app producers in the app stores. Results The majority of the apps was designed to assist caregivers in their caregiving activities. Apps were rarely tailored to specific groups of family caregivers such as young carers and their needs. Further, apps addressing caregivers’ personal health, financial security, and work issues were scarce. Commercial apps dominated the market, often intermediating paid services or available for users of specific hardware. Public and non-profit organizations provided best-rated and free-of-charge apps but had a very limited range of services with focus on caregivers’ health and training. Conclusions Our results indicate that current apps for family caregivers do not distinguish specific groups of family caregivers, also they rarely address caregivers’ personal needs.

AI-Powered Solutions to Support Informal Caregivers in Their Decision-Making: A Systematic Review of the Literature <sup><a class="tippyShow" data-tippy-arrow="true" data-tippy-content="This article is an extended version of the conference paper: Milella F, Russo DD, Bandini S, How artificial intelligence can support informal caregivers in their caring duties to elderly? a systematic review of the literature. In: AIXAS2023 Italian Workshop on Artificial Intelligence for an Ageing Society, co-locat

“…The studies identified by the search strategy have been selected based on whether they met all of the inclusion criteria outlined as follows: 1) Caregivers were informal carers or unpaid voluntary helpers; 2) The article describes or evaluates an AI-based technology or assistive technology developed with the primary or secondary goal to assist informal carers in fulfilling their caregiving duties and personal needs, mentioned in the referenced literature (i.e. [21]). On the contrary, articles were not included whether they met any of the following exclusion criteria: 1) targeted caregivers were professionals; 2) the AI-based technology or assistive technology was not expressively tailor-made for caregiving; 3) articles were not in English; 4) articles were reviews, commentaries, abstract, theoretical frameworks.…”

Eine App für die informelle Pflege

“…Zahlreiche Anbieter digitaler Angebote haben es sich zur Aufgabe gemacht, Lösungen für diese Informations- und Koordinationsbedarfe zu entwickeln [ 1 , 18 ]. Auch politische Akteure setzen große Hoffnungen in digitale Anwendungen und fördern diese durch die Schaffung rechtlicher Rahmenbedingungen, etwa für digitale Pflegeanwendungen (DiPA).…”

Designing and Evaluating IT Applications for Informal Caregivers: Protocol for a Scoping Review

“…However, it is important to note that not all IT applications effectively support informal caregivers. A previous scoping review found that IT applications focus more on supporting caregivers in their caregiving role than their private and professional life [13]. Therefore, it is important to identify IT applications that cater to the primary caregiving and personal need domains of informal caregivers.…”