Saturday, 15 January 2005 - 4:00 PM

This presentation is part of: Services for Older Adults

Integrating Empirical Practice Procedures: Evaluating A Technological Intervention With Older People

Integrating Empirical Practice Procedures: Evaluating A Technological Intervention With Older People

Purpose This paper presents the findings from an evaluation of a unique intervention using modern technological devices to help older people improve their quality of life in their own homes. The project, called the ‘eHome Project’ is based in Seinajoki, Finland.

Method The method included the integration of single-subject designs into the project team’s practice to systematically track outcomes using standardised measures, and the use of comparison group designs. Procedures were also developed and integrated to enable the systematic tracking of factors in the circumstances of service users that may influence the outcomes, as well as the content of the interventions, using a SPSS database. Binary logistic regression models were tested to investigate whether the technological interventions worked and in what circumstances.

Results The database included 44 cases in one year where standardised measures such as Dartmouth COOP Charts were used repeatedly. It was found that the interventions were effective in a large majority of the cases. Binary logistic regression analysis indicated that the eHome project’s interventions were more likely to be effective where the users’ self-evaluation of their mobility was the worst, and less likely to be effective where the problems were severe enough to involve the domiciliary home service.

Implications for Practice The findings indicate that the technological devices used were more likely to be effective where there were problems of mobility, but where the problems were not compounded by other factors that required more intensive support. Therefore, the eHome project works as a preventative intervention, helping older people to remain in their own homes without intensive domiciliary support. The use of single-system designs in all cases enabled the project workers to evaluate their practice prospectively, helping to target the interventions where they were more likely to be effective.

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