Older Adults' Perspectives and Experiences With Digital Health in Singapore: Qualitative Study.

JMIR Hum Factors

The Institute for Digital Medicine (WisDM), Yong Loo Lin School of Medicine, National University of Singapore, Singapore, Singapore.

Published: November 2024

AI Article Synopsis

  • Technology use among older adults is growing, but many still don't utilize it for health management; this study aimed to explore their views and experiences with digital health in Singapore.
  • Interviews with 16 participants revealed five key themes: need for support in digital health literacy, importance of credibility, cost considerations, motivation for healthy living, and interest in telehealth options.
  • Insights from the study can help policymakers and digital health implementers tailor strategies to better support older adults in adopting digital health tools for improved health outcomes.

Article Abstract

Background: Technology use among older adults is increasingly common. Even though there is potential in leveraging technology to help them manage their health, only a small fraction of them use it for health-related purposes.

Objective: This study seeks to understand the perspectives of and experiences with digital health (DH) among older adults in Singapore.

Methods: A total of 16 participants (age range 60-80 years; n=11, 69% female) were interviewed for approximately an hour (range 27-64 minutes) about their health, DH use, and DH experiences. The interviews were recorded, transcribed verbatim, and thematically analyzed.

Results: Five main themes emerged from the interview: support in developing DH literacy, credibility, cost and benefit considerations, intrinsic drive to be healthy, and telehealth. Older adults need support in familiarizing themselves with DH. When considering DH options, older adults often relied on credible sources and preferred DH to be free. Monetary incentives were brought up as motivators. The intrinsic drive to live longer and healthily was expressed to be a huge encouragement to use DH to help obtain health-related knowledge and achieve healthy living goals. The idea of telehealth was also appealing among older adults but was seen to be more suited for individuals who have issues accessing a physical clinic.

Conclusions: Our findings offer insights into the various aspects that matter to older adults in the adoption of DH, which in turn can help reshape their health-seeking behavior and lifestyle. As such, policy makers and DH implementors are encouraged to take these into consideration and align their strategies accordingly.

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Source
http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC11589501PMC
http://dx.doi.org/10.2196/58641DOI Listing

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