Qualitative Analysis of User Experiences of a mHealth Self-Care Intervention for Care Partners of Individuals with Traumatic Brain Injury.

36 of the 68 people invited were interviewed, and they volunteered, so those who took part may differ from those who did not. Interviews began only after an interim analysis showed no difference between the two arms, so the sample was weighted toward people who had finished the trial recently; those later participants met more of the app's technical problems than earlier ones did. 29 of the 36 participants were women, so the findings may not fit male care partners. Interviews were done by research staff the participants already knew, which may have made people more positive in what they said. The notification findings and the interview-materials findings come only from the 16 people in arm 2, because arm 1 never received notifications or saw notification materials. One researcher did the primary coding, although three co-authors met regularly to review and refine it. These are reports of experience. Nothing here shows whether the app changed caregiver strain, depression, anxiety, sleep or activity.

The authors state they have no financial or nonfinancial disclosures to make in relation to this project. No funder is named in the text provided.

Do not read these interviews as evidence that the app worked or did not work. The trial itself found no difference between the two arms, and this study only asked people what using the app was like, so it cannot show whether the prompts changed caregiver strain, depression or sleep. The notification findings also come only from the 16 people whose arm received notifications.