JMIR Publications

ABSTRACT

Background:

COVID-19 has rendered the elderly as the vulnerable group with higher death rates in the 50+ age group. In the stereotype, the elderly user group do not have the willingness nor the skills in need to adapt to the fast technology progress. Wide use of AI in health monitoring and health management such as the use of smart phone for online consultation, or the use of wearables to monitor key bio-metrics suggests the transformation to a prevention-based healthcare model and homecare. Telehealth solution usage has been accelerated during COVID. Yet the trust of elderly users with telehealth solutions are thin with many prefer face difficulties in reality to access and use such tools. The preference for telehealth solutions among elderly users remain unexplored as companies usually see it as the niche market where users are not active. Past literatures also mostly examine specific sub-population such as students, patients, current and potential users while none specifically explores the preference of the elderly.

Objective:

To explore elderly (>=50 years old) user’s preference for smart health solutions in China. The goal is to analyze why users choose telehealth solutions over traditional health solutions based on a model consisting of the benefits (raise health awareness) and risks of using smart health solutions, demographic factors and social influence.

Methods:

Past literatures on preference on telehealth solutions was checked carefully. The theoretical is built on technology acceptance model, the dual-factor model and health belief model. The questionnaire consists of 31 questions and was distributed offline on pad. The questionnaires were collected from Shenzhen, Hangzhou, Wuhan and Yichang randomly with 390 effective data samples. Subsequently, Stata 16.0 and SPSS 23.0 and was used to analyze data. O-logit rrdered regression and principle component analysis was the main theoretical model used. Data visualization was also used to illustrate factors in a qualitative manner.

Results:

A logit ranking regression model is used to analyze elderly user preference over telehealth solutions. There are three factors related the preference for telehealth solutions, namely the perceived value, the perceived benefits in self-care and health management and perceived risk in trust over data accuracy embedded in telehealth solutions. The model can predict 80% of all preference for telehealth solutions among 390 survey participants.

Conclusions:

Perceived value of telehealth solutions do not have a statistically important effect on the elderly user's preference for telehealth solutions. Perceived benefits of telehealth solutions in self-care and health management have a positive impact while the perceived risk in trust over data accuracy over data collected from telehealth solutions have a negative impact on the preference for telehealth solutions among elderly user group.