Technology Learning and the Adoption of Telehealth Among Community-Dwelling Older Adults During the COVID-19 Outbreak

Abstract

The present study aims to examine changes in the prevalence of telehealth utilization in older adults before and during the COVID-19 outbreak, and to investigate the relationship between learning a new technology and the adoption of telehealth during the outbreak. The study sample came from the National Health and Aging Trend Study COVID-19 Supplement ( N=1769). The adoption of telehealth was assessed for utilization of emails and video calls to communicate with healthcare providers. Logistic regressions were performed to test the study aims. The findings showed that older adults substantially increased the utilization of telehealth during the outbreak. Additionally, learning a new technology is related to the adoption of both emails and video calls to access telehealth. The findings suggest that older adults may be motivated and able to quickly learn a new technology that is required to access telehealth during the COVID-19 outbreak.

Enhancing Telehealth Competency: Development and Evaluation of Education Modules for Older Adults

“…With the majority of the quantitative sample completing all study procedures, we feel this suggests a general interest among our sample in completion of the revised TEM trainings, a finding also found among the samples of Edwards et al (2014) and Qin (2022). We feel this cross-cutting level of interest in gaining telehealth competency demonstrates a need within this field and suggests practitioners have resources to support this need among potential clients.…”

“…In addition to confidence, Vaportzis et al (2017) found a lack of accessible training and technology-specific knowledge to be additional barriers. Despite these barriers, older adults express a willingness to adopt telehealth to access services that would facilitate independent living ( Edwards et al, 2014 ; Qin, 2022 ; Vaportzis et al, 2017 ). Targeted and accessible training is critical for adoption among this population ( Carroll et al, 2022 ).…”

Effectiveness of telehealth interventions on psychological outcomes and quality of life in community adults during the COVID‐19 pandemic: A systematic review and meta‐analysis

“…The recent evidence suggested that serious emotional disturbances and insecurity associated with COVID‐19 were more common in this population. In addition, according to a national poll, one‐third older adults delayed health care due to the epidemic‐related concerns, which may trigger their motivation to use telehealth (Qin, 2022). Regarding gender, we found similar results with Meurk et al (2016) that telemental health services were predominantly used by women.…”

Development and Feasibility of an eHealth Diabetes Prevention Program Adapted for Older Adults—Results from a Randomized Control Pilot Study

“…Advances in remote fitness technology including wearable fitness trackers, mobile apps, e-dashboards, network-enabled scales, and social fitness platforms have helped to maximize the success of remotely delivered programs [ 16 , 17 , 18 ]. These tools allow for robust and real-time self-monitoring, interventionist surveillance, group social interaction, interventionist support, increased goal salience, program adherence, and dynamic opportunities for self-improvement [ 19 , 20 , 21 ].…”