The experiences of elderly people regarding the use of health care electronic services and utilizing experiences in developing services

Authors

• Milla Rosenlund Itä-Suomen yliopisto
• Ulla-Mari Kinnunen

DOI: https://doi.org/10.23996/fjhw.69136

Keywords:

healthcare, electronic services, elderly people, user experience, health technology

Abstract

Electronic services are becoming more common in the near future also in social and health care. One of their purposes is to activate and support people’s ability to take responsibility of their own health and well-being. However, new technologies and electronic services can cause disparity between demographic groups as, for example, technology related skills are lower among elderly people.

The share of elderly people is heavily increasing in the near future due to a large number of retirement, a low rate of mortality and, on the other hand, a lowering share of children and working-age people. Consequently, elderly people are becoming more and more important users of social and health services. The objective of this descriptive review is to describe what kind of experiences elderly people have of using electronic health services, and which factors influence their use of electronic health services. Moreover, the objective is to find out usability factors that arise during the use of electronic services and which issues related to elderly people should be taken into consideration during system development.

Based on 36 studies selected, it was observed that elderly people feel mainly positive about using electronic services. However, many factors affect their use of electronic health services. In general, problems were noticed in relation to usability issues such as too small fonts, unclear symbols and buttons difficult navigation structure. Worries about information security and confidentiality as well as being marked were also noticed.