Information and Communications Technology as a Health Promotion Method for Older Adults in Assisted-Living Facilities: Three-Arm Group-Randomized Trial

Abstract

Background The application of technology is an important and growing aspect in the field of long-term care. Growing evidence shows the positive impact of technology aids in helping the lives of the elderly. However, it is not known which aspects of information and communications technology (ICT) are preferred by older adults living in long-term care facilities. Objective The goal of the research was to compare the impact of ICT-communication, ICT-entertainment, and conventional care on older adults’ health and psychological change after interventions among older adults in assisted-living facilities. Methods A three-arm group-randomized trial design was used to evaluate participants who resided in three different but comparable assisted-living facilities and received different aspects of the ICT interventions. A total of 54 older adults with disabilities received one of the three interventions over 12 weeks and completed pre- and postevaluations on quality of life, social support, and psychological well-being. Results Participants completing this study had a mean age of 73 (SD 11.4) years, and 50% (27/54) were male. Both the ICT-communication and ICT-entertainment groups showed significant improvement in the mental component of quality of life (4.11, P =.012 and 37.32, P <.001, respectively), family/friend–related social support (0.05, P =.001 and 0.04, P <.001, respectively), happiness (0.79, P =.038 and 3.72, P =.001, respectively), and depressive symptoms (–2.74, P =.001 and –7.33, P <.001, respectively). Importantly, participants in the ICT-entertainment group improved significantly more than the other two groups. The ICT-entertainment group also showed improvement in the physical component of quality of life (20.49, P <.001) and health care worker–related social support (0.1, P =.008). Conclusions Results suggest that the entertainment but not the communication part of ICT is the most effective health promotion method for improving the health and psychological well-being of older adults in assisted-living facilities.

A Systematic Review on Technology-Supported Interventions to Improve Old-Age Social Wellbeing: Loneliness, Social Isolation, and Connectedness

“…Although not designed as a part of the intervention, participants who received weekly phone calls [ 43 ] also reported shared interests as a way to break the ice as well as to establish a “meaningful reciprocal relationship” and mentioned the importance of knowing about others' lives and events and wanting to talk about ordinary, everyday topics. Pictures as prompt for conversation was also common, retrieving relatives' pictures from social media [ 36 ], using pictures during videochats [ 44 ], or enabling sharing with family and friends [ 33 , 48 , 49 , 52 ].…”

“…Tablet users reported feeling silly talking to a virtual pet, problems with audio, and delay in messages [ 40 ]. A number of studies also reported that reduced dexterity could lead to difficulties with texting and typing [ 33 ], with gestures such as tapping and swiping [ 48 , 52 ], and coordination issues such as requiring to hold voice icon to record audio messages [ 37 ].…”

“…Interactions in person also occurred. Sometimes, participants met during the interventions and formed groups: a computer interest group [ 42 ] (which got to publish a newsletter for the community), group workshops [ 53 ] and training [ 37 ], and discussion and support groups [ 30 ], for example, to watch and discuss YouTube videos [ 33 ]. Three interventions included support or teaching imparted in person by relatives or volunteers [ 32 , 36 , 41 ].…”

“…We start by summarizing the interventions analyzed. ere were 13 interventions that considered loneliness as a primary outcome [30][31][32][33][34][35][36][37][38][39][40][41][42], one of which also considered social isolation [34]. Another 12 had loneliness and/or social connectedness as secondary outcomes (see Table 1, Outcomes).…”

“…We must note, however, that some interventions described their results as "perceptions" or "being anecdotal" [40], and not resulting from "standardized measurement tools" [32]. e other 19 interventions conducted quantitative studies, although only five were randomized controlled trials (RCTs) [35,36,42,50,44] and one was a group randomized trial [33]. e remaining interventions all relied on standardized tools to measure loneliness or social isolation or some quantifiable variable such as the volume of incoming and outgoing interactions [36] or the size of the social network [47].…”