Climate Change in the Context of Informal Care – The Development of an App for Caregivers

Abstract

PURPOSE

We will present the conceptual and methodological foundations of the project "Climate Change and Health in the Context of Informal Care," sponsored by the FFG Austrian Research Promotion Agency. This Austrian project aims to improve digital health literacy among informal caregivers (e.g. family caregivers and 24h caregivers) through the development of an app designed to support them during heat waves, providing essential information to minimize health risks and ensuring climate-sensitive care.

(Research) Projects can be found in developing apps for professional and informal caregivers to support them in their daily caring activities (e. g. Hudelmayer et al., 2023; Sala-González et al., 2021; Vandersman et al., 2021). However, there is little scientific information about apps specifically for informing and educating informal caregivers on the health effects of climate change, on explaining and showing them how to protect themselves and their patients from health-worsening consequences

METHOD

This project contains an interdisciplinary approach with a mixed-model longitudinal study design and a participatory focus . (von Unger, 2014). It is coordinated by the ÖSB Consulting GmbH as technical partner, supported by the Arbeitsgemeinschaft Pflegegruppe (a consortium for 24h caregivers) as networking partner, and scientifically led by the IMC Krems. In workshops shortly before summer in 2024 and 2025, informal caregivers, firstly, will be generally informed about health effects of climate change. Secondly, they will get instructions on how to use the first prototype of the app and will be asked to use it during summertime while they are caring for their patients. Qualitative Interviews and assessments of digital health literacy will be conducted in order to understand the attitudes of the caregivers towards climate change, their knowledge on the health effects on their patients and on themselves, as well as to measure the effects on their digital health literacy (Griebler et al., 2021).

RESULTS AND DISCUSSION

In September 2024, the first empirical phase has been performed. Therefore, we will focus on the conceptual and methodological setup of the research project. First insights will be shown on the suitability of the participating approach, as well as first preliminary results from the health literacy assessment and the qualitative interviews with the informal caregivers. Moreover, we will discuss the possible adaptions of the approach for the second empirical phase in 2025.

KEYWORDS

Digital Health Literacy, Climate Change, Health App, Informal Care, Participatory Research

MAIN AFFILIATION AND COUNTRY OF FIRST AUTHOR

Institute of Nursing Science at the IMC Krems/Austria

jette.lange@fh-krems.ac.at

REFERENCES

Griebler, R., Straßmayr, C., Mikšová, D., Link, T., Nowak, P., & und die Arbeitsgruppe Gesundheitskompetenz-Messung der ÖPGK. (2021). Gesundheitskompetenz in Österreich: Ergebnisse der österreichischen Gesundheitskompetenzerhebung HLS19-AT. G. Bundesministerium für Soziales, Pflege und Konsumentenschutz & G. d. Bundesgesundheitsagentur.

Hudelmayer, A., zur Kammer, K., & Schütz, J. (2023). Eine App für die informelle Pflege. Zeitschrift für Gerontologie und Geriatrie, 56(8), 623-629. https://doi.org/10.1007/s00391-023-02249-1

Sala-González, M., Pérez-Jover, V., Guilabert, M., & Mira, J. J. (2021). Mobile Apps for Helping Informal Caregivers: A Systematic Review. International Journal of Environmental Research and Public Health, 18(4), 1702. https://www.mdpi.com/1660-4601/18/4/1702

Vandersman, P., Perimal-Lewis, L., & Tieman, J. (2021). Is There an App for That? A Scoping Review of Apps for Care Workers in the Aged Care Sector. Studies in Health Technology & Informatics(277), 124-134. https://doi.org/10.3233/shti210035 (Studies in Health Technology and Informatics)

von Unger, H. (2014). Partizipative Forschung. Einführung in die Forschungspraxis. Springer VS.