Digital health platforms for the elderly? Key adoption and usage barriers and ways to address them

Johan Frishammar, Anna Essén, Frida Bergström and Tilda Ekman

Technological Forecasting and Social Change, 2023, vol. 189, issue C

Abstract: Digital healthcare platforms (DHPs) represent a relatively new phenomenon that could provide a valuable complement to physical primary care – for example, by reducing costs, improving access to healthcare, and allowing patient monitoring. However, such platforms are mainly used today by the younger generations, which creates a “digital divide” between the younger and the elderly. This article aims to identify: i) the perceived key barriers that inhibit adoption and usage of DHPs by the elderly, and ii) what DHP providers can do to facilitate increased adoption and usage by the elderly. The article draws on qualitative interviews with elderly and complementary process data from a major Swedish DHP. We find that the elderly perceives two key barriers to initial adoption of DHPs: i) negative attitudes and technology anxiety and ii) one key barrier affecting both adoption and usage – lack of trust. The analysis also identifies multiple development suggestions for DHP improvement to better accommodate the needs of the elderly, including suggestions for application development and tailored education activities. We provide an integrated framework outlining the key barriers perceived and ways to address them. In so doing, we contribute to the literature on mHealth and to the literature on platforms in healthcare.

Keywords: Digital healthcare platforms; Elderly generations; Digital health; mHealth; Digital health platform adoption; Digital health platform usage (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2023
References: View references in EconPapers View complete reference list from CitEc
Citations: View citations in EconPapers (1)

Downloads: (external link)
http://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0040162523000045
Full text for ScienceDirect subscribers only

Related works:
This item may be available elsewhere in EconPapers: Search for items with the same title.

Export reference: BibTeX RIS (EndNote, ProCite, RefMan) HTML/Text

Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:eee:tefoso:v:189:y:2023:i:c:s0040162523000045

DOI: 10.1016/j.techfore.2023.122319

Access Statistics for this article

Technological Forecasting and Social Change is currently edited by Fred Phillips

More articles in Technological Forecasting and Social Change from Elsevier
Bibliographic data for series maintained by Catherine Liu ().