Older service users’ experiences of learning to use eHealth applications in sparsely populated healthcare settings in Northern Sweden and Finland

Abstract

This research seeks to better understand how older people living in sparsely populated areas learn and then use eHealth applications in their everyday lives. The study was conducted in northern Sweden and Lapland in northern Finland, the most sparsely populated areas in these countries. The study focused on the use of following eHealth services: a medication-dispensing service, a virtual health room and a self-monitoring system. Research data were collected through semi-structured interviews and observations. The study included 19 participants, aged from 63 to 89 years. The following research questions guided the study: In what ways was the respondents' learning and use of the eHealth service a social practice? How are such practices affected by cultural identities? The results show that digital selfcare technologies can be very user friendly, easy to use, and sometimes, require very little learning effort from older users. However, the results also show that engaging in eHealth and learning how to use digital self-help services requires constant learning of different competences, not just digital but also competences that are medical and administrative. In addition, the use of eHealth required support from the respondents' children, grandchildren, neighbors, and friends. Therefore, the digital self-care technologies contributed to a broader redistribution of responsibility from individual users and health and social care to informal support networks surrounding the respondents. Finally, the results indicated that respondents' motives for learning and using the digital services often expressed cultural identities that affected such conceptions.

What are the determinants of older people adopting communicative e-health services: A meta-ethnography

“…The factors identi ed in the current review support similar ndings from previous literature within the area of older adults and e-health services, such as chronic illness (17)(18)(19), the interface and design (11)(12)(13), poor digital skills (9,16,(19)(20)(21), and a lack of understanding or concern regarding privacy and security online (8, 13,15,16). Additionally, facilitating factors highlighted within the current review corroborate previous literature ndings, such as having support networks (9,(22)(23)(24)(25), recommendations by healthcare providers (26), and having access to technology and the internet (10,27).…”

“…Whereas facilitators of engaging with e-health services for this group involve support from family and healthcare providers (9,(22)(23)(24)(25), doctors' recommendations (26), access to technology and the internet (10,27), and high levels of education (10,26,28).…”

Impact of the COVID‐19 pandemic on family carers in the community: A scoping review

“…As a consequence of COVID‐19, the use of technology to allow continuous communication between support providers and carers could be employed, however, although this helped to minimise virus transmission through a reduction of face‐to‐face contact, it should also be recognised that not all carers can access this type of support (Carers UK, 2020b). Barriers to the use of technology include lack of experience or lack of access, and other obstacles such as familiarity, design challenges, competency and needing help from others (Aledeh & Habib Adam, 2020; Carers UK, 2020b; Fischer et al., 2014; Hirvonen et al., 2020; Rasi et al., 2020), resulting in low recruitment and retention rates of older carers for online support (Baruah et al., 2021). In light of this information, it cannot be assumed that the use of technology can replace face‐to‐face contact, rather it should be used to supplement existing support.…”

Educational Concepts of Digital Competence Development for Older Adults—A Scoping Review

“…Basic skills-general functions and features, device set up [14,19,28,32,34,39,40,46,50,53,56] Communication [3,14,19,28,32,34,40,46,50] Social media [28,32,39,40,47,50,53] e-Health, health information and services [3,14,28,34,41,43,44,53,54] Internet browsing [14,19,28,32,50] e-Entertainment [14,32,34,39,53] Online banking and shopping [14,19,32] Cybersecurity [19,28,40,…”