Health promotion technology and the aging population

Abstract

In an effort to improve the quality of care for any population, technology is integrated into the healthcare system. Different types of technologies can aid in health promotion through prevention, education, and monitoring techniques. Prevention methods are becoming more common with older adults to assist with their activities of daily living as well as to support them in learning and remembering healthy behaviors. The willingness to adopt a new technology is key to successfully modifying behavior and what hinder the outcome are issues of competency as well as access. The purpose of this book chapter is to use empirical studies to review the types of health technology used with the older population, as well as the overall level of success on their behaviors. Once the research question was defined, an inclusion and exclusion criterion was used to select the peer-reviewed articles. Various studies that fulfilled the predefined criteria were used. Data was extracted from 39 articles for the evaluation of the different health technologies and their uses. mHealth and phones are the most popular type used for health promotion, as it is present in 36% of the articles evaluated. Other successful and popular types of technology used were websites and modules (26%), as well as monitoring technology (23%). In all of the studies, the elderly population was able to successfully use the technology, indicating that the adoption of new technology is possible at any age. Technology can be used to affect the elderly population to integrate healthier habits into their lives. The variety of accessible technologies allows individuals to use it in conjunction for their desired outcomes.