Utilization Barriers and Medical Outcomes Commensurate With the Use of Telehealth Among Older Adults: Systematic Review (Preprint)

Abstract

BACKGROUND Background: Rising telehealth capabilities and improving access to older adults can aid in improving health outcomes and quality of life indicators. Telehealth is not being used ubiquitously, at the present. OBJECTIVE This review seeks to identify the barriers that prevent ubiquitous use as well as ways in which telehealth improves health outcomes and quality of life indicators for older adults. METHODS This systematic review was conducted and reported in accordance with the Kruse protocol and the Preferred Reporting Items for Systematic Reviews and Meta-analyses. Reviewers queried four research databases: The Cumulative Index of Nursing and Allied Health Literature (CINAHL), PubMed (MEDLINE), Web of Science, and Embase (Science Direct) research databases. Reviewers analyzed 64 articles, performed a narrative analysis to identify themes, and identified barriers and reports of health outcomes and quality of life indicators found in the literature. RESULTS Reviewers analyzed 57 studies across five interventions of telehealth: eHealth, mHealth, tele-monitoring, telecare (phone), and telemedicine video calls. Reviewers identified fourteen themes for barriers: The most common of which were technical literacy (25/144 occurrences, 17%), lack of desire (19/144 occurrences, 13%), and cost (11/144 occurrences, 8%). Reviewers identified thirteen medical outcomes associated with telehealth intervention: The most common of which were decrease in psychological stress (21/118 occurrences, 18%), increase in autonomy (18/118 occurrences, 15%) and increase in cognitive ability (11/118 occurrences, 9%). Some articles did not report medical outcomes (18/57, 32%) and some did not report barriers (19/57, 33%). CONCLUSIONS The literature suggests the elimination of barriers could increase the prevalence of telehealth use by older adults. By increasing use of telehealth, proximity to care is no longer an issue for access, thereby reaching the population with more chronic conditions and mobility restrictions. Future research should be conducted on methods for personalizing telehealth in older adults before implementation. CLINICALTRIAL This review was registered with PROSPERO. INTERNATIONAL REGISTERED REPORT RR2-10.2196/15490

The Implementation of Tele-Health Physiotherapy Services for Musculoskeletal Conditions: A Systematic Review

“…A recent paper concluded that the Tele-Health services could facilitate the care and appointments, could address the patient's concerns, and providing the patients a safe method to contact their physicians or health care providers [9]. Another study identified 13 positive medical outcomes related to providing and implementing of Tele-Health services such as decreasing the psychological stress, improving the autonomy, and enhancing the cognitive ability [10]. In 2019, Cavanagh et.…”

“…al. [10] identified 14 barriers after reviewing of 57 studies; the most common barrier was the technical literacy (17%), followed by the lack of desire (13%), and cost (8%). Schäfer et.…”

“…Systematic Review and Meta-Analysis is the mostly used methodology in articles. Out of 32 articles there were 9 articles in which Systematic Review and Meta-Analysis method approach was used [10], [11], [13], [19], [21], [28], [30], [32], [36]. In 5 articles narrative literature review has been conducted which were [12], [14], [18], [26], [35].…”

Older adults’ digital inclusion: New challenges for Lithuanian social policy

“…Evidence suggests that the conscious use of a range of ICT contributes positively to older adults' subjective well-being and healthy aging [16,17]. It helps to maintain social ties, stay physically active and safe, maintain independence, and prolong a healthy life thus reducing social isolation [18].…”