The TechSAge Minimum Battery: A multidimensional and holistic assessment of individuals aging with long-term disabilities.

BACKGROUND: People with disabilities acquired in early to mid-life are living longer, contributing to growing numbers of older adults who are aging with disability, an understudied population likely to be underserved. OBJECTIVES: This paper demonstrates the usefulness of the TechSAge Minimum Battery as a holistic assessment of health for people aging with disabilities. METHODS: Survey data of socio-demographic and health characteristics were collected from 176 older adults with long-term vision, hearing, and/or mobility disabilities. A series of descriptive and bivariate analyses were conducted to illustrate the heterogeneity of the sample. An in-depth analysis of the subsample with vision difficulty was conducted to highlight the tool's value in assessing detailed contextual information for a specific disability. RESULTS: Prevalence of health conditions (M = 4.1; SD = 2.5), prescription medications (M = 4.1; SD = 3.9), and serious functional difficulties (M = 1.6; SD = 0.85) indicated a fair degree of comorbidity, but with considerable variation in number and type among individuals. Subjective health ratings were high overall, but lower scores were correlated with additional comorbidities (r = -0.31-0.40, p =<.001). Analyses of the subsample with vision difficulty demonstrated heterogeneity in functional capacity, degree of impairment, duration, and use of supportive aids. CONCLUSIONS: Findings highlighted the heterogeneity among people aging with disability and demonstrated the importance of capturing multi-dimensional factors inclusive of an individual's capacity, context, and personal factors, which the Minimum Battery provides in an integrated assessment. Potential healthcare applications of the tool are discussed with implications for bridging aging and disability services.

Needs Assessment-mHealth Applications for People Aging with Multiple Sclerosis.

Multiple sclerosis (MS) is a complex inflammatory disorder of the central nervous system. It is characterized by a large number and variety of symptoms, with cognitive changes and mobility limitations being the most significant ones related to disability. A majority of individuals diagnosed with MS experience a major decline in their abilities due to the progression of MS after 5 years post-diagnosis. Following this period, they need to learn how to cope with the functional limitations caused by the disease and how to age with MS due to an early onset of age-related problems. As a result, they have to manage the effects of the condition on their lives every day. Self-management can help mitigate the symptoms associated with MS. Mobile health (mHealth) apps provide potential support for self-management of the condition as they represent robust technologies that have potential to include all the interventions proven to be useful to manage multiple health problems. However, none of the mobile applications on the market for people with MS present the holistic and integrative app that provides their users with a variety of the valuable functional features for the self-management of their health. Furthermore, there is a lack of literature on needs and concerns of individuals aging with MS to inform the design of the mobile technologies and related functional features of the MS-specific mobile apps. The purpose of this paper is to report the results of a qualitative study with individuals aging with MS, to (1) understand their health and wellness self-management needs, and (2) recognize the opportunities to meet those needs through mobile technologies and specific functional features. A systematic review of the functional features in MS-specific mobile applications is presented with the purpose to understand the current state of the utility of mobile apps and to identify two applications with the most versatile functionality.