“Any bit of help, helps”: Understanding how older caregivers use carework platforms for caregiving support

Abstract

Older adults are increasingly acting as caregivers, given population aging and pervasive caregiver shortages. Meanwhile, gig-economy-based carework platforms have also become popular. As older adults are one of the fastest-growing groups of informal caregivers and technology users in the past decade, we conducted an online survey among older adults residing in the US (N = 193) about how they use these platforms to manage their caregiving tasks. We identified factors related to their frequency of using caregiving help and their intention to continue using caregiving help via carework platforms. We also reported how and why older adults use these platforms, their main concerns and needs related to these platforms, and their most significant positive and negative experiences. Our findings contribute to a foundational understanding of how older caregivers use carework platforms and how such platforms could be better designed to suit the needs and wants of older caregivers.