Visualization approaches to support healthy aging: A systematic review

BACKGROUND: Informatics tools have the potential to support the growing number of older adults who are aging in place. Many tools include visualizations (data visualizations and visualizations of physical representations). However, the role of visualizations in supporting aging in place remains largely unexplored. OBJECTIVE: To synthesize and identify gaps in the literature evaluating visualizations (data visualizations and visualizations of physical representations) for informatics tools to support healthy aging. METHODS: We conducted a search in CINAHL, Embase, Engineering Village, PsycINFO, PubMed, and Web of Science using a priori defined terms for publications in English describing community-based studies evaluating visualizations used by adults aged ≥ 65 years. RESULTS: Six out of the identified 251 publications were eligible. Most studies described in the publications were user studies and all varied methodological quality. Three publications described visualizations of virtual representations supported performing at-home exercises. Participants found visual representations either (1) helpful, motivational, and supported their understanding of their health behaviours or (2) not an improvement over alternatives. Three publications described data visualizations that aimed to support understanding of one’s health. Participants were able to interpret data visualizations that used precise data and encodings that were more concrete better than those that did not provide precision or were abstract. Participants found data visualizations helpful in understanding their overall health and granular data. CONCLUSIONS: Few studies were identified that used and evaluated visualizations for older adults to promote engagement in exercises or understanding of their health. While visualizations demonstrated some promise to support older adult users in these activities, the studies had various methodological limitations. More research is needed, including research that overcomes methodological limitations of studies we identified, to develop visualizations that older adults could use with ease and accuracy to support their health behaviours and decision making.