Abstract
The global population aged 60 years and over is expected to almost double between 2015 and 2050 from 12.0% to 22.0%, which will directly impact countries' labor market composition and increase the economic pressure on their healthcare systems. One way to address these challenges is to promote Active and Healthy Ageing (AHA) using mobile Health (mHealth). This research aims to provide an initial overview of the width and the depth of contemporary preventive mHealth solutions that promote AHA among healthy, independent older adults (individuals aged 60 years and over). To do so, an explorative scoping review was applied to search online databases for recent studies (March 2015 - March 2020) addressing the promotion of mHealth solutions targeting healthy and independent older adults. We identified 31 publications that met the inclusion criteria. Most of them utilized either mobile (n=25) and/or wearable (n=11) devices. mHealth solutions mostly promoted AHA by targeting older adults’ active lifestyles or independence. Most of the studies (n=27) did not apply a theoretical framework on which the mHealth promotion was based. User-experience was positive (n=12) when the solution was easy to use but negative (n=11) when the participants were resistant or faced challenges using the device and/or technology. The review concludes that mHealth offers the opportunity to combat the issues faced by an unhealthy and dependent aging population by promoting AHA through focusing on older adults’ Lifestyle, Daily functioning, and Participation. Future research should use multidisciplinary integrated approaches and strong theoretical and methodological foundations to investigate mHealth solutions' impact on AHA behavioral change.
Highlights
The world's population is experiencing delayed mortality and a lower fertility rate due to improvements in education, healthcare, sanitation, nutrition, and economic well-being [1]
This review focused on mobile Health (mHealth) solutions developed for older adults
Many older individuals experienced challenges when using the devices—underlining the importance of using an integrated approach where the target population is heavily involved in the design, implementation, and maintenance of the mHealth solutions
Summary
The world's population is experiencing delayed mortality and a lower fertility rate due to improvements in education, healthcare, sanitation, nutrition, and economic well-being [1]. The increasing older population impacts the old-age dependency ratio, where there will be fewer workingage individuals to provide for the older generation, which will increase the pressure on countries' economy, labor market composition, and healthcare system [3] To avoid that these changes turn into challenges requires new approaches to prevent that ageing comes with ill health and dependency [4], here promoting Active and Healthy Ageing (AHA) could be key. The concept of AHA refers to delaying the onset of morbidity, improving quality of life, and increasing well-being [5,6]. Besides the medical definition, at the core of AHA is
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