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Abstract

Objectives: In response to the lack of digital support for older people to plan their lives for quality of life, research was undertaken to codesign then evaluate a new digital tool that combined interactive guidance for life planning with a computerised model of quality of life.

Method: First, a workshop-based process for co-designing the SCAMPI tool with older people is reported. A first version of this tool was then evaluated over eight consecutive weeks by nine older people living in their own homes. Four of these people were living with Parkinson’s disease, one with early-stage dementia, and four without any diagnosed chronic condition. Regular semi-structured interviews were undertaken with each individual older person and where wanted their life partner. A more in-depth exit interview was conducted at the end of the period of tool use. Themes arising from analyses of content from these interviews was combined with first-hand data collected from the tool’s use to develop a description of how each older people used the tool over the eight weeks.

Results: The findings provided first evidence that the co-designed tool, and in particular the computerised model, could offer some value to the older people. Although some struggled to use the tool as it was designed, which led to limited uptake of the tool’s suggestions, the older people reported factoring these suggestions into their longer-term planning, as health and/or circumstances might change.

Conclusions: The paper contributes to the evolving discussion about how to deploy such digital technologies to support quality of life more effectively.

Publication Type:	Article
Additional Information:	This article is distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 License (https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/) which permits any use, reproduction and distribution of the work without further permission provided the original work is attributed as specified on the SAGE and Open Access page (https://us.sagepub.com/en-us/nam/open-access-at-sage).
Publisher Keywords:	Older people, dementia, Parkinson’s disease, quality of life, life planning, summative evaluation
Subjects:	H Social Sciences > HM Sociology H Social Sciences > HN Social history and conditions. Social problems. Social reform Q Science > QA Mathematics > QA75 Electronic computers. Computer science R Medicine > RA Public aspects of medicine > RA0421 Public health. Hygiene. Preventive Medicine
Departments:	Bayes Business School Bayes Business School > Management School of Health & Psychological Sciences > Healthcare Services Research & Management School of Health & Psychological Sciences > Nursing
SWORD Depositor:	Symplectic Administrator

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