Social support needs to encourage health-related technology use among elderly persons who age in place: a scoping review

Abstract

This scoping review focused on mapping out the relevant literature on the subject of the social support needs of the elderly who age in place and their use of technology for health-related purposes, identify research gaps and propose directions for future research. The PRISMA-ScR checklist was used to guide this scoping review. A total of 11, 991 potential articles were identified from four international academic databases. Five rounds of exclusion reduced these potential articles to five finalized articles. Gaps identified included the role of the wider community in providing social support for the adoption and engagement with health-related technology, the role of technology education in adoption and use of health-related technology, and the disparity of studies on emotional social support needs of the elderly who age in place. Suggested directions of future research included more diverse uses of research methodologies, inclusion of the elderly who age in place in the development of future research, education-focused research, policy level studies, studies based on particular genders or disabilities, comparative studies in the post COVID-19 era and the emotional aspects of social support needs.