What makes online healthcare easier or harder for older adults to use?

Details

Society has gradually moved more services online, and COVID-19 highlighted digital inequalities in access to services such as healthcare. Older adults can face these inequalities while also being more likely than younger people to need medical appointments. As healthcare becomes more digital, understanding how older adults can best use communicative e-health services to interact with healthcare services is increasingly important—particularly as declining general health makes access to, and active interaction with, health professionals important.

This review aimed to synthesise older adults’ experiences and perceptions of communicative e-health services and identify barriers and facilitators to their use. It used meta-ethnography to qualitatively synthesise literature on older adults’ experiences of these services. A systematic search of six international databases, covering January 2014 to May 2022, used terms relating to ‘older adults’, ‘e-health’, ‘technology’ and ‘communication’. It yielded 10 empirical studies for synthesis.

The synthesis identified 10 themes that may affect older adults’ perceptions and/or experiences of communicative e-health services: health barriers; support networks; application interface/design; digital literacy; lack of awareness; online security; access to digital devices and the internet; relationships with healthcare providers; preference for in-person care; and convenience. These themes are interconnected.

The findings suggest that older adults’ experiences and perceptions of communicative e-health services are generally negative, with many reporting various barriers to engaging with online services. However, many negative experiences are related to limited support networks, low digital literacy and complicated application interfaces. The findings support previous literature on barriers and facilitators to older adults’ adoption of technology in general. The review suggests placing greater emphasis on providing support networks to increase adoption and use of communicative e-health services.