Abstract
Purpose :
Visually-impaired seniors may prefer to receive training to learn a new visual assistive mobile application (app) remotely via videoconferencing due various reasons that are related to travel (time, expense, and arrangements), safety, comfort, and convenience. We evaluated app training outcomes for remote versus in-person sessions, as well as patient acceptability of the remote training modality, in order to assess the feasibility for those who prefer this approach.
Methods :
We conducted initial training sessions with a visual assistive app (i.e., Aira, SuperVision+ magnifier, or Seeing AI) on a loaner iPhone provided to 112 visually-impaired older adults (aged 55+), of which 32 were completed remotely via telerehabilitation with Zoom videoconferencing and 80 were in-person at our Centers.
Results :
There were no significant differences between telerehabilitation versus in-person training groups for the proportion who owned a smartphone or tablet device (97% telerehabilitation versus 91% in-person; p=0.28), duration of the training time (mean 52 minutes for telerehabilitation versus 49 minutes for in-person; 95% CI: -24, 9; p=0.59), or the proportion who achieved proficiency with the app at the end of the first session post-telerehabilitation (66%) compared to those who received in-person training (53%)(p=0.21). All participants who completed the app training via telerehabilitation mostly or strongly agreed that they were comfortable with the virtual format for training, and all agreed they were interested in a future telerehabilitation session for another app. The majority (80%) strongly or mostly agreed that telerehabilitation was as accurate as in-person, 80% also strongly or mostly agreed that the technology did not interfere with the session, and 76% were very satisfied.
Conclusions :
These data support the feasibility of telerehabilitation for older adults who opt for remote training with visual assistive smartphone apps. High levels of acceptability of telerehabilitation for visual assistive apps were similar to recently published acceptability of telerehabilitation training for traditional optical or electronic magnifiers.
This abstract was presented at the 2023 ARVO Annual Meeting, held in New Orleans, LA, April 23-27, 2023.