Public Health Problem: Elder mistreatment (EM) is a major public health problem that affects older adults regardless of race, ethnicity, education, or socioeconomic status. EM includes neglect and physical, emotional, sexual, and financial abuse. An estimated 1 in 10 older adults experience EM, but only 1 in 24 cases of EM become known to authorities.

Program Description: We are developing and testing a digital health tool to assist older adults self-disclose elder mistreatment. The our tool is designed with the end user in mind and runs on tablets (e.g. iPads) and includes various multimedia elements such as text-to-speech, videos and animations designed to educate and screen for EM.

Impact/Evaluation: We conducted a front-end usability evaluation with 15 older adults to test our tool on an iPad. All participants were 60 years or older, with varying degrees of comfort with using technology. The overall feedback from the usability study was positive, and 93% of participants indicated that they would recommend this tool to others. Participants specified that the tool interface was very easy to use to complete each task given, with an average of 4.93 on a 5-point Likert scale ranging from “Strongly Disagree” to “Strongly Agree”. They offered suggestions for improvements, including minor fixes and adjustments to the tool.

Implications: Our tool represents a paradigm shift by placing EM screening in the hands of the older adult, rather than the healthcare provider. It will revolutionize the screening for EM and overcome major safety and ethical concerns with traditional EM screening.