Living with pain, staying in touch: Exploring the communication needs of older adults with chronic pain

Jessica David*, Diane Gromala, Alison Benjamin, Jeremy Birnholtz, Ron Baecker

*Corresponding author for this work

Research output: Chapter in Book/Report/Conference proceedingConference contribution

18 Scopus citations

Abstract

For older adults with chronic pain, maintaining social ties can be difficult. Both chronic pain and social isolation compound each other and are associated with poor health outcomes. Our research explores how technology can be used to facilitate communication and support for older adults with chronic pain. We report on preliminary results of field research with 20 participants and deployment of a digital communicating picture frame prototype. We found that chronic pain introduces unique barriers to synchronous contact and that our prototype seemed to fit the needs of these individuals by supporting meaningful asynchronous communication with the possibility for adjustable reciprocity.

Original languageEnglish (US)
Title of host publicationCHI EA 2011 - 29th Annual CHI Conference on Human Factors in Computing Systems, Conference Proceedings and Extended Abstracts
PublisherAssociation for Computing Machinery
Pages1219-1224
Number of pages6
ISBN (Print)9781450302289
DOIs
StatePublished - 2011

Publication series

NameConference on Human Factors in Computing Systems - Proceedings

Keywords

  • Chronic pain
  • Connecting families
  • Internet communications
  • Media spaces
  • Senior citizens

ASJC Scopus subject areas

  • Software
  • Human-Computer Interaction
  • Computer Graphics and Computer-Aided Design

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