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Abstract
BackgroundIn a changing ageing society wherein older adults are increasingly expected to take care of themselves instead of relying on health care services, online community care platforms can help older adults to meet these expectations. A considerable number of these online community care platforms have been introduced in several European countries based on their potential. However, their actual impact is unclear.ObjectiveThe aim of this study was to investigate the self-reported use, expectations, and perceived impact of a Dutch online community care platform called Grubbenvorst-Online among Dutch older adults. The following 2 questions were studied: (1) What is the self-reported use of Grubbenvorst-Online among older adults? (2) What are their expectations and perceived impact of Grubbenvorst-Online regarding local participation, their social network, mutual informal caregiving, and feelings of connectedness?MethodsAn observational pretest-posttest study was conducted. Participants were recruited via a web-based message on the Grubbenvorst-Online platform and data were collected via postal questionnaires among older users at the start of the study and 4 months later. Data regarding the expectations and the perceived impact of Grubbenvorst-Online were compared and tested.ResultsForty-seven Grubbenvorst-Online users with an average age of 74 years participated in this study. They were healthy, predominantly “internet-skilled,” and they found the internet important for maintaining social contacts. In general, the use of the online community care platform decreased during the 4-month follow-up period. The perceived impact of Grubbenvorst-Online was significantly lower than that expected regarding information provision (P=.003), seeking help from fellow villagers (P<.001), giving help to fellow villagers (P<.001), and consulting care or welfare services (P<.001).ConclusionsThe findings of this study indicate that online community care platforms perhaps do not provide enough “added value” in their current form. We suggest a new direction in which online community care platforms primarily support existing offline initiatives aimed at stimulating local participation, informal caregiving, and feelings of connectedness.
Highlights
In a changing ageing society wherein older adults are increasingly expected to take care of themselves instead of relying on health care services [1,2], online community care platforms can help older adults to meet these expectations
The review resulted in an overview of 21 care platforms, which can be classified into the following 3 types: (1) Online Community Care Platforms, which attempt to enhance social cohesion by interlinking community-dwelling older adults with neighboring informal caregivers and by promoting local activities at the neighborhood level; (2) Online Care Network Platforms, which provide older adults and professional and informal caregivers tools to coordinate, plan, and communicate about care; and (3) System Integrator Platforms, which interconnect a variety of functionalities
The latter platform type has the capability of integrating existing services and apps into its own software, that is, it operates as an “empty” information communication technology framework, which can be filled with any content [9]
Summary
In a changing ageing society wherein older adults are increasingly expected to take care of themselves instead of relying on health care services [1,2], online community care platforms can help older adults to meet these expectations. The review resulted in an overview of 21 care platforms, which can be classified into the following 3 types: (1) Online Community Care Platforms, which attempt to enhance social cohesion by interlinking community-dwelling older adults with neighboring informal caregivers and by promoting local activities at the neighborhood level; (2) Online Care Network Platforms, which provide older adults and professional and informal caregivers tools to coordinate, plan, and communicate about (health) care; and (3) System Integrator Platforms, which interconnect a variety of functionalities The latter platform type has the capability of integrating existing services and apps into its own software, that is, it operates as an “empty” information communication technology framework, which can be filled with any content [9]. We suggest a new direction in which online community care platforms primarily support existing offline initiatives aimed at stimulating local participation, informal caregiving, and feelings of connectedness
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