Related Experiment Video
Updated: Jul 15, 2026
11:21
Methodology for Establishing a Community-Wide Life Laboratory for Capturing Unobtrusive and Continuous Remote Activity and Health Data
Published on: July 27, 2018
Performance-Based Usability of Medication Adherence Technologies Among Older Adults With Diverse Capabilities:
Bincy Baby1, Ghada Elba1, SooMin Park1
1School of Pharmacy, University of Waterloo, 10 Victoria St S A, Waterloo, ON, N2G 1C5, Canada, 1 (519) 888-4499 ext 21337.
JMIR Aging
|July 13, 2026
Summary
Older adults
Area of Science:
- Gerontology and Human-Computer Interaction
- Health Informatics and Technology Assessment
- Usability Engineering and Design Research
Background:
- Medication adherence technologies (MATs) aim to help older adults manage medications, but usability issues hinder their effectiveness.
- Older adults face various barriers (cognitive, physical, sensory, motivational, environmental) impacting technology interaction.
- Performance-based usability testing is crucial for identifying and addressing these challenges in MATs.
Purpose of the Study:
- To evaluate the performance-based usability and user experience of 13 medication adherence technologies (MATs).
- To assess MATs among a diverse group of older adults (aged 60+) with varying capabilities.
- To identify user characteristics and environmental factors influencing MAT usability and task success.
Main Methods:
- A prospective mixed-methods study involving 96 participants (aged 60+) testing 13 smart and electronic MATs.
- Participants performed predefined usability tasks without prior training to simulate real-world first-use scenarios.
- Validated tools assessed individual barriers (cognitive, physical, vision, motivation, environment), and Poisson GEE models analyzed task success and error predictors.
Main Results:
- Cognitive, physical, vision, and motivational scores, along with lower environmental busyness, significantly predicted unassisted task success.
- Female participants exhibited a 9% lower success rate. Age, sex, physical and vision scores, and environmental factors predicted error rates.
- Specific interactions, like between physical score and sex, also influenced total error rates.
Conclusions:
- Both MAT design and individual user characteristics significantly impact technology usability.
- Performance-based evaluations offer critical insights for user-centered design and selection of accessible MATs.
- Findings can guide manufacturers and healthcare providers in developing and choosing technologies to enhance medication adherence in older adults.
Related Concept Videos
01:15Drug Dosing: Geriatric Patients
Elderly individuals encompass a diverse population with varying degrees of age-related physiological changes. Defining the elderly presents challenges, as the geriatric population is often arbitrarily categorized as individuals older than 65. However, many individuals in this group lead active and healthy lives, with an increasing number surpassing 85 years and falling into the older elderly category. Physiological changes associated with aging impact performance capacity and homeostatic...
01:22Pharmacokinetics in Geriatric Patients: Effect of Age on Drug Absorption
As individuals age, their body's physiology evolves, affecting drug pharmacokinetics. The most apparent changes occur in the gastrointestinal tract, where an increase in gastric pH, a delay in gastric emptying, and a reduction in gastrointestinal motility are observed. Remarkably, these changes do not substantially modify the absorption of orally administered drugs, particularly those absorbed via passive diffusion.Transdermal drug delivery emerges as a highly viable method for older adults due...
01:18Pharmacokinetics in Geriatric Patients: Effect of Age on Drug Excretion
In geriatric patients, renal physiology undergoes significant changes, including diminished renal blood flow and a lower glomerular filtration rate (GFR), leading to alterations in medication clearance. Drugs such as aminoglycoside antibiotics, lithium, and digoxin, which rely on glomerular filtration for removal from the body, particularly impact pharmacokinetics. These drugs tend to have slower clearance rates in older adults, necessitating careful dosage considerations.Evaluation of renal...
01:27Pharmacodynamics in Geriatric Patients: Effects of Age
Age-related pharmacokinetic changes are extensively documented, but understanding age-related pharmacodynamic alterations is relatively limited. This knowledge gap can be partly attributed to the complexity of developing appropriate measures of drug responses compared to bioanalytical methods for determining drug concentrations.Most information regarding age-related differences in human pharmacodynamics originates from cross-sectional studies. However, these studies assume that observed mean...
01:18Pharmacokinetics in Geriatric Patients: Effect of Age on Drug Metabolism
Geriatric patients show significant variation in how their bodies process medications, which can change how effective and safe treatments are. The liver is the primary organ where drug metabolism occurs, involving two main types of chemical reactions: phase I and II. Phase I metabolism is driven by the cytochrome P450 enzyme system, which includes key types such as CYP3A, CYP2D6, and CYP2C9. Research indicates that while aging doesn't notably alter the levels or activity of these enzymes, it...
01:00Pharmacokinetics in Geriatric Patients: Effect of Age on Drug Distribution
Drug distribution in the human body is influenced by several factors, including plasma protein concentration, body composition, blood flow, tissue-protein concentration, and tissue fluid pH. Among these, changes in plasma protein concentration and body composition due to aging significantly affect how drugs are distributed within the body. Specifically, aging is associated with a decrease in albumin levels by about 10% and an increase in α1-acid glycoprotein levels. These alterations are not...