Living with pain, staying in touch: exploring the communication needs of older adults with chronic pain

For older adults with chronic pain, maintaining social ties can be difficult. Both chronic pain and social isolation compound each other and are associated with poor health outcomes. Our research explores how technology can be used to facilitate communication and support for older adults with chronic pain. We report on preliminary results of field research with 20 participants and deployment of a digital communicating picture frame prototype. We found that chronic pain introduces unique barriers to synchronous contact and that our prototype seemed to fit the needs of these individuals by supporting meaningful asynchronous communication with the possibility for adjustable reciprocity.