Connecting Elders, Empowering Caregivers

描述(申请人提供)：此第二阶段现场试验测试数字邮箱技术对老年人与家庭成员沟通的影响。以前的研究已经证明了老年人对家庭关系的重视，以及牢固的家庭关系对心理和身体健康的好处。一项在第一阶段研究中证明了其可行性的新技术，可以通过电子方式将家庭与不太懂电脑的老年成员联系起来，目的是让老年人与许多美国家庭经常使用的电子邮件对话保持联系。在这种设置中，提示服务可以通过在与年长成员的通信中断时向指定的家庭成员发出警报来增加价值。此家庭成员可以通过直接发送消息或要求其他家庭成员这样做来响应警报。 在这项试验中，将广泛测试数字邮箱技术，以确定对数字邮箱的访问是否足以增加通信频率和家庭参与。该试验还将评估增加提示服务的价值。这项研究将比较三个试验组(单独的数字邮箱、有提示的数字邮箱和控制)在沟通频率、系统内测量的家庭参与、家庭幸福感和个人幸福感方面的差异。将对调解模式进行测试，以确定沟通频率的变化是否导致观察到的家庭或个人幸福感远端衡量标准的任何变化。最后，流程评估将产生关于使用该技术和相关服务的消费者满意度和自我效能的数据。除了这个项目的直接目的之外，这项研究的数据对研究家庭沟通的科学家来说具有丰富的潜力。

DESCRIPTION (provided by applicant): This Phase II field trial tests the impact of the Digital Mailbox technology on older adults' communication with family members. Previous research has documented the value that older adults place on family connections as well as the benefits of strong family connections to mental and physical health. New technology, whose feasibility was demonstrated in a Phase I study, can electronically link families with their less computer savvy elderly members with the goal of keeping elderly persons in the loop of e-mail conversations used regularly by many American families. In this setting, a prompting service may add value by alerting a designated family member when communication with the older member has fallen off. This family member can respond to the alert by sending messages directly, or by asking other family members to do so. The Digital Mailbox technology will be tested broadly in this trial to determine whether access to the Digital Mailbox is sufficient to increase communication frequency and family involvement. The trial will also assess the value of adding a prompting service. The study will compare three experimental groups (Digital Mailbox alone, Digital Mailbox with prompting, and Control) on communication frequency, family involvement measured within the system, family well-being, and individual well-being. A mediation model will be tested to determine whether changes in communication frequency are responsible for any observed changes in distal measures of family or individual well- being. Finally, a process evaluation will produce data on consumer satisfaction and self- efficacy with using the technology and associated service. Beyond the immediate purpose of this project, the data from this study have rich potential for scientists studying family communication.