Connecting Elders, Empowering Caregivers

描述（由申请人提供）：该第二阶段现场试验测试了数字语音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联系的重视，以及强大的家庭联系对身心健康的好处。新技术的可行性已在第一阶段研究中得到证明，它可以通过电子方式将家庭与不太懂计算机的老年人联系起来，目的是使老年人能够经常与许多美国家庭使用的电子邮件对话保持联系。在该设置中，提示服务可以通过在与年长成员的通信已经中断时提醒指定的家庭成员来增加价值。该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，将广泛测试数字家庭电话技术，以确定使用数字家庭电话是否足以增加通信频率和家庭参与。试验还将评估增加提示服务的价值。该研究将比较三个实验组（单独数字化，数字化与提示，和控制）的通信频率，家庭参与系统内测量，家庭幸福感，和个人幸福感。将测试中介模型，以确定通信频率的变化是否对家庭或个人幸福的远端测量的任何观察到的变化负责。最后，过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.