Managing Healthcare Conflicts when Living With Multiple Chronic Conditions

Abstract People with multiple chronic conditions (MCC) often face complex and overwhelming conflicts in their personal health management. However, little is known about how technology can help users to address these challenges. Better understanding the practices involved in conflict resolution is necessary to guide the design of technology aiming to support this population. This interview study investigated the strategies seniors use to overcome conflicts involving different health issues, their self-care tasks, risks of another illness or complication, and their personal values. We report on the different strategies used to address these conflicts, such as seeking advice and information from different sources to prioritize and compromise. Compromising often involves purposefully deciding against conventional treatments or self-care activities. We argue that rich information and flexibility are required to support decision making in MCC self-care, and advocate for a holistic perspective in technology design for health management. These implications also apply to systems focused on a single illness, as many of their users might live with other conditions.