Telehealth for Elderly Patients: Benefits and Barriers. A narrative literature review
Verbeck, Saskia Lennartz (2025)
Julkaisun pysyvä osoite on
https://urn.fi/URN:NBN:fi:amk-2025112730484
https://urn.fi/URN:NBN:fi:amk-2025112730484
Tiivistelmä
Background and goal: After a phase of rapid trial and error during the COVID-19 pandemic, telehealth has settled in to become a ‘new normal’ healthcare option. Telehealth is now frequently offered to patients in lieu of office visits for routine activities such as preventive care consultations, minor complaints, chronic condition management, or medication refills. Patients and their caregivers, providers and their support staff, infrastructure, internet service, and government regulations are actors and factors in the setting of telehealth. Varying levels of equipment ownership, user expertise, and available support create an uneven landscape that particularly older adults may have difficulty accessing or navigating. This narrative literature review examines the barriers and benefits older adults in the United States (US) encounter when utilizing telehealth and highlights trends and solutions reported in recent research.
Methods: This narrative literature review is based on peer-reviewed studies with abstracts, published between January 1, 2021, and June 1, 2024, on the databases CINAHL Ultimate and PubMed. Search terms were “elderly, older adults, seniors, telehealth, telemedicine, virtual, access, health services accessibility, access to care, Access to Health Care, barriers, United States, USA, U.S.A.”. The resulting studies that matched inclusion criteria were examined for major recurring themes; then revisited repeatedly to extract findings.
Results: Older adults’ use of telehealth in the United States depends mainly on access to electronic devices, availability of high speed-internet services, caregiver or technical support, and whether healthcare providers offer telehealth. Government regulations, elders’ sensory and cognitive deficits and cultural and personal preferences play a role as well. Healthcare inequities and disparities persist but have shifted in telecare, empowering many seniors formerly at a disadvantage.
Conclusion: Telehealth is beneficial for older adults in the United States. Lawmakers, tech industry partners, and healthcare providers should work together to increase seniors’ physical access to devices and internet service and provide digital literacy training and tech support. Caregiver support is key for older adults to use telehealth.
Methods: This narrative literature review is based on peer-reviewed studies with abstracts, published between January 1, 2021, and June 1, 2024, on the databases CINAHL Ultimate and PubMed. Search terms were “elderly, older adults, seniors, telehealth, telemedicine, virtual, access, health services accessibility, access to care, Access to Health Care, barriers, United States, USA, U.S.A.”. The resulting studies that matched inclusion criteria were examined for major recurring themes; then revisited repeatedly to extract findings.
Results: Older adults’ use of telehealth in the United States depends mainly on access to electronic devices, availability of high speed-internet services, caregiver or technical support, and whether healthcare providers offer telehealth. Government regulations, elders’ sensory and cognitive deficits and cultural and personal preferences play a role as well. Healthcare inequities and disparities persist but have shifted in telecare, empowering many seniors formerly at a disadvantage.
Conclusion: Telehealth is beneficial for older adults in the United States. Lawmakers, tech industry partners, and healthcare providers should work together to increase seniors’ physical access to devices and internet service and provide digital literacy training and tech support. Caregiver support is key for older adults to use telehealth.