Ouderen en eHealth: op afstand en dichterbij?

Abstract

Due to the ageing population, care demands and healthcare costs are increasing in the Netherlands. eHealth applications can provide remote care and support, and thus possibly mitigating these negative consequences of ageing. Limited research has been done in the post-implementation stage of the use of eHealth among elderly people. Therefore, 17 semi-structured interviews were conducted among people over 70, who use video calling (e-consult) or send their health values online (e-monitoring). The motives for using eHealth were individual resilience, previous experiences with digital means and inefficient support. This research shows that the eHealth applications better suit their needs than the previous way of support and have positive emotional and health-related consequences. The complexity of the eHealth application to transmit health values online, IT problems and inadequacy of eHealth are perceived as obstacles. To promote the acceptance of eHealth among the elderly, the social environment and peers can serve as change agents by showing the relative benefits of the applications. To convert acceptance into actual use, the user must have patience, trust and a sense of responsibility. Furthermore, the application should be explained calmly and in clear language and the application must be user-friendly, inexpensive and provide a backup plan. In order to ensure that current users also make more use of eHealth, expansion must be actively sought. Given the continuous development of eHealth applications, more research is needed in the post-implementation stage, if possible longitudinally. In addition, in future research more attention should be paid to the influence of the social environment on the current use and the conditions under which eHealth has negative consequences for the elderly.