People over 75 face significant challenges as health services go digital

A project within the Future Challenges in the Nordics research programme highlights the concrete challenges that older people face when using digital health services. The digitalisation of care work is also changing the job description of professionals, and there isn’t necessarily any training available for this.

The research project "Demography and Democracy – Healthy Ageing in a Digital World (HAIDI)" examines the digitalisation of social and health services in three Nordic countries from the perspective of the ageing population. The aim is to find out whether citizens' equal rights and opportunities to good health are being realised in a context where services and society are largely digitalised.

Data has been collected through interviews with people aged 75 and over about their experiences of using digital health services. In Finland the study focuses on people living at home, in Denmark on people living in nursing homes and in Sweden on older people in both groups. The survey will bring to the fore experiences and voices that are not usually heard in the social debate.

"In all three countries surveyed, older people are encouraged to take responsibility for their own health. However, there are differences in the stage each country is at in the digitalisation of social and health services," say Elisa Tiilikainen, Associate Professor at the University of Eastern Finland, and Hanna Varjakoski, Postdoctoral Researcher at the University of Eastern Finland.

Elisa Tiilikainen. Photo: Mathias Foster/Futurenordics

Hanna Varjakoski. Photo: Mathias Foster/Futurenordics

Digital services need to be personalised

In policy-making, digital services are strongly associated with the assumption that they improve accessibility and involve citizens in monitoring and managing their own health. However, the results of the project show that there are many challenges in using digital health services from the perspective of an ageing population.

Interviews revealed that even when older people have the basic skills to use other digital services, the digital health services cause problems.

"Public health websites are often perceived as poorly designed and difficult to use. Many people find it difficult to find them," say Tiilikainen and Varjakoski.

In addition, many older people are used to face-to-face interactions and find digital services remote and impersonal. Digital services also often lack real-time communication. Researchers argue that digital health services should be designed from the outset with the user in mind, including specific needs related to ageing and functional capacity.

Digitalisation is changing the way care works

Care professionals working with older people have also faced challenges as services become digital.

"It has been surprising to find that, for example, there is not necessarily any training on how to do remote home care. Digital care has changed the nature of work significantly and it is important that it is also taken into account in the training of professionals," Varjakoski and Tiilikainen say.

According to the study, the design of public digital services is lagging behind private services. Poor service design affects the user experience and reduces the willingness to reuse services.

"If we want to increase the use of digital services, their accessibility and usability should be significantly improved," Varjakoski and Tiilikainen say.

A total of 71 elderly people and 39 professionals working in social services for the elderly in Finland, Sweden and Denmark were interviewed for the study. The final results will be published in 2025.