A research team from the Department of Geriatrics and Family Medicine at Bundang Hospital (Seoul) analyzed the behavior of 505 people aged 65 to 79 in Korea in 2022. Their use of the internet, mobile applications, health applications and wearable devices based has been scrutinized in correlation with their degree of fragility.
The 505 respondents used smartphones and 433 of them (85.7%) used the internet. The main purpose of using the Internet is to read information and communicate, and they use search, news, and messaging services extensively.
First surprise, the study notes that individuals who are in the pre-dementia and dementia stages have greater use of social media than healthy people.
Identifying the use and purpose of digital health technologies among older adults
Another lesson is that while 440 (87.1%) of those surveyed used applications, 319 (63.2%) said they were unable to install or uninstall them themselves. This is mainly because spouses, partners and children help them install apps and encourage them to use them.
Health-related apps were used by 290 people (57.4%), mainly to measure physical exercise (90.7%). People in the pre-frail and frail stages are more likely to use health-related apps for information and advice about medications than healthy people.
While smartphone usage is high, only 36 people (7.1%) use wearable devices. Among them, healthy older adults were most likely to use them for self-care (70.8%). Frail older adults were more likely to use wearables when deciding whether to see a doctor (33.3%).
“For the first time, we have comprehensively identified the use and purpose of digital health technologies among older adults based on their frailty status,” said Professor Hyejin Lee. “In the future, when we develop technologies for the elderly, we can rely on this data to develop satisfactory technologies that reflect the specific needs of frail and non-frail users,” added Professor Kim.
The study was published in the Journal of Korean Medical Science.
Source: “ZDNet Korea”