Mobile health solutions for the aging population: A systematic narrative analysis

Abstract

Introduction: The ubiquitous nature of mobile technology coupled with the acceptance of mobile health (mHealth) among the elderly offers an opportunity to augment the existing medical workforce in long-term care. The objective of this review and narrative analysis is to identify and analyse facilitators and barriers to adoption of mHealth for the elderly. Methods: Studies over the last year were identified in multiple database indices, and three reviewers examined abstracts (k ¼ 0.82) and analysed articles for themes which were tallied in affinity diagrams to identify frequency of occurrence in the literature (n ¼ 36). Results: The three facilitators mentioned most often were independence (18%), understanding (13%), and visibility (13%). The three barriers mentioned most often were complexity (21%), limited by users (12%) and ineffective (12%). Discussion and conclusions: The reviewers concluded that the work done so far illustrates that mHealth enables a perception of independence. Future research should focus on the barriers of complexity of technology and improving existing medical literacy in order to facilitate further adoption.

Self-Management of Chronic Diseases Among Older Korean Adults: An mHealth Training, Protocol, and Feasibility Study (Preprint)

“…Procedures regarding participants' anonymity and confidentiality should be carefully designed and described to participants [13,20]. Based on the Association of Internet Research recommendations for ethical conduct for Internet, Computer, and Technology research [24], a unique participant code was assigned to each participant for data collection and entry to the database.…”

“…There are significant gaps in the literature investigating how mHealth interventions help older adults self-managing of chronic diseases [10,[13][14][15][16][17][18][19]. Past studies have reported the efficacy of disease-centered interventions focusing on a single disease group.…”

“…The interventions highly depend on mobile communication using telephone calls and a short message service rather than multi-factorial interventions integrating applications and webbased interactive programs [10]. Moreover, there is limited information of the process how the mHealth intervention protocols were developed, considering the key challenges faced by community-dwelling older adults [10,13,20]. No previous theory-based Korean study aimed to develop specific components of mHealth interventions tailored to older Koreans with diverse types of chronic diseases.…”

“…mHealth helps people to recognize their healthcare needs, facilitates access to health services, and assists in solving problems regarding their illnesses [12,13]. More importantly, mHealth has increased adherence to treatment and disease management for better patient outcomes across the chronic disease trajectory [10,13].…”

“…mHealth is defined as medical and public eHealth approaches to improve health and wellbeing, which allows delivery of healthcare services via various solutions using mobile devices and associated technologies [10,12]. mHealth enables users to utilize resources through network services and diverse technological applications in a timely manner without physical travel [10,12,13]. In addition, mHealth services empower people to be active partners; people are likely to participate in their healthcare practice through interactive communications with healthcare providers [12].…”