Elderly Not Likely to Use Digital Tools for Health Management, JAMA Research Discovers

Senior citizens have so far been the ones spending the most for their healthcare, most especially since they frequently incur medical conditions due to aging. However, despite this, they are also the ones to least likely utilize digital health tools to assist in their healthcare.

According to a recent study by the Journal of the American Medical Association (JAMA), the elderly are not just into such tools. Supposedly, they can make use of these tools to research for health information (with only 16 percent doing so), fill out prescriptions (8 percent), handle insurance concerns (5 percent), and contact physicians (7 percent).

The findings may have been as such due to the tools not being as user-friendly as they should be for the age group, the researchers reiterated. With this, they suggest future innovations on adherence, usability, and scalability to enhance the effectiveness and reach of seniors’ digital health.

This, together with other interventions such home care services are considered vital to provide the elderly with quality of life as they require more thorough health care services.

— Image Courtesy of Mount Pleasant Granary.net