Older Adults' Perspectives and Experiences With Digital Health in Singapore: Qualitative Study

Abstract

Background: Technology use among older adults is increasingly common. Even though there is potential in leveraging technology to help them manage their health, only a small fraction of them use it for health-related purposes.

Objective: This study seeks to understand the perspectives of and experiences with digital health (DH) among older adults in Singapore.

Methods: A total of 16 participants (age range 60-80 years; n=11, 69% female) were interviewed for approximately an hour (range 27-64 minutes) about their health, DH use, and DH experiences. The interviews were recorded, transcribed verbatim, and thematically analyzed.

Results: Five main themes emerged from the interview: support in developing DH literacy, credibility, cost and benefit considerations, intrinsic drive to be healthy, and telehealth. Older adults need support in familiarizing themselves with DH. When considering DH options, older adults often relied on credible sources and preferred DH to be free. Monetary incentives were brought up as motivators. The intrinsic drive to live longer and healthily was expressed to be a huge encouragement to use DH to help obtain health-related knowledge and achieve healthy living goals. The idea of telehealth was also appealing among older adults but was seen to be more suited for individuals who have issues accessing a physical clinic.

Conclusions: Our findings offer insights into the various aspects that matter to older adults in the adoption of DH, which in turn can help reshape their health-seeking behavior and lifestyle. As such, policy makers and DH implementors are encouraged to take these into consideration and align their strategies accordingly.

Keywords: Singapore; acceptance; aging; digital health; elder; experience; geriatrics; gerontology; interview; mHealth; mobile health; perspective; qualitative; technology adoption; technology use.