Efficacy of Interventions Based on the Use of Information and Communication Technologies for the Promotion of Active Aging

Álvaro Astasio-Picado, Paula Cobos-Moreno, Beatriz Gómez-Martín, Lorena Verdú-Garcés and María del Carmen Zabala-Baños
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Álvaro Astasio-Picado: Nursing and Physiotherapy Department, Faculty of Health Sciences, University of Castilla-La Mancha, Real Fábrica de Sedas, s/n., 45600 Toledo, Spain
Paula Cobos-Moreno: Nursing Department, University of Extremadura, 10600 Cáceres, Spain
Beatriz Gómez-Martín: Nursing Department, University of Extremadura, 10600 Cáceres, Spain
Lorena Verdú-Garcés: Nursing and Physiotherapy Department, Faculty of Health Sciences, University of Castilla-La Mancha, Real Fábrica de Sedas, s/n., 45600 Toledo, Spain
María del Carmen Zabala-Baños: Nursing and Physiotherapy Department, Faculty of Health Sciences, University of Castilla-La Mancha, Real Fábrica de Sedas, s/n., 45600 Toledo, Spain

IJERPH, 2022, vol. 19, issue 3, 1-11

Abstract: Nowadays, the study of how new media and technologies can be used to carry out health education by bringing these tools closer to the elderly population is interesting. It is a way of offering them access not only to greater knowledge, but to greater communication and relationship with their surroundings, a range of new possibilities and resources at their disposal that also represent a way to reduce the generation gap and bring them closer to the rest of the community. Objectives: to evaluate and analyze the studies that show the efficacy of interventions based on the use of information and communication technologies for the promotion of active aging in people older than or equal to 65 years who live in the community. Data sources, study eligibility criteria: the search for the articles was carried out from January 2012 to March 2021, in 6 databases (Pubmed, Cochrane Library, Scopus, Scielo, Google Academic and WOS) based on the clinical question, using the keywords derived from the DeCS and MeSH thesauri, combined with the Boolean operators “AND”, “NOT” and “OR”. The search was limited to publications from the last 9 years, in English and Spanish. Results: after applying the selection criteria and evaluating the quality of the methodology, 7.91% ( n = 17) of the 215 results were included with filters: 7 systematic review, 5 of Cohorts and 5 of Randomized Controlled Trial. Conclusions and implications of key findings: the use of communication technologies reduces the feeling of loneliness, as well as the use of virtual reality to exercise, train memory or perform rehabilitation. The most difficult barrier to overcome is the prior ignorance of the majority of the elderly to the technology that is overcome by working as a team throughout the community, especially in the health and educational sector, as well as the family or social nucleus.

Keywords: Tics; mobile applications; serious games; internet; virtual reality; home automation; active aging; elderly; gerontechnology; review (search for similar items in EconPapers)
JEL-codes: I I1 I3 Q Q5 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2022
References: View complete reference list from CitEc
Citations: View citations in EconPapers (2)

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