Willard, S., van Rossum, E., Spreeuwenberg, M. et al. (1 more author) (2020) Perceived impact of an online community care platform for Dutch older adults on local participation, informal caregiving, and feelings of connectedness: pretest-posttest observational study. Journal of Medical Internet Research, 22 (12). e20304.
Abstract
Background: In a changing ageing society wherein older adults are increasingly expected to take care of themselves instead of relying on health care services, online community care platforms can help older adults to meet these expectations. A considerable number of these online community care platforms have been introduced in several European countries based on their potential. However, their actual impact is unclear.
Objective: The aim of this study was to investigate the self-reported use, expectations, and perceived impact of a Dutch online community care platform called Grubbenvorst-Online among Dutch older adults. The following 2 questions were studied: (1) What is the self-reported use of Grubbenvorst-Online among older adults? (2) What are their expectations and perceived impact of Grubbenvorst-Online regarding local participation, their social network, mutual informal caregiving, and feelings of connectedness?
Methods: An observational pretest-posttest study was conducted. Participants were recruited via a web-based message on the Grubbenvorst-Online platform and data were collected via postal questionnaires among older users at the start of the study and 4 months later. Data regarding the expectations and the perceived impact of Grubbenvorst-Online were compared and tested.
Results: Forty-seven Grubbenvorst-Online users with an average age of 74 years participated in this study. They were healthy, predominantly “internet-skilled,” and they found the internet important for maintaining social contacts. In general, the use of the online community care platform decreased during the 4-month follow-up period. The perceived impact of Grubbenvorst-Online was significantly lower than that expected regarding information provision (P=.003), seeking help from fellow villagers (P<.001), giving help to fellow villagers (P<.001), and consulting care or welfare services (P<.001).
Conclusions: The findings of this study indicate that online community care platforms perhaps do not provide enough “added value” in their current form. We suggest a new direction in which online community care platforms primarily support existing offline initiatives aimed at stimulating local participation, informal caregiving, and feelings of connectedness.
Metadata
Item Type: | Article |
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Authors/Creators: |
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Copyright, Publisher and Additional Information: | ©Sarah Willard, Erik van Rossum, Marieke Spreeuwenberg, Luc de Witte. Originally published in the Journal of Medical Internet Research (http://www.jmir.org), 01.12.2020. This is an open-access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License (https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/), which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work, first published in the Journal of Medical Internet Research, is properly cited. The complete bibliographic information, a link to the original publication on http://www.jmir.org/, as well as this copyright and license information must be included. |
Keywords: | older adults; online community; online platform; social network; local participation; informal caregiving |
Dates: |
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Institution: | The University of Sheffield |
Academic Units: | The University of Sheffield > Faculty of Medicine, Dentistry and Health (Sheffield) > School of Health and Related Research (Sheffield) > ScHARR - Sheffield Centre for Health and Related Research |
Depositing User: | Symplectic Sheffield |
Date Deposited: | 19 Jan 2021 14:20 |
Last Modified: | 19 Jan 2021 14:26 |
Status: | Published |
Publisher: | JMIR Publications Inc. |
Refereed: | Yes |
Identification Number: | 10.2196/20304 |
Related URLs: | |
Open Archives Initiative ID (OAI ID): | oai:eprints.whiterose.ac.uk:169544 |