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Customized Information and Communication Technology for Reducing Social Isolation and Loneliness Among Older Adults: Scoping Review
BACKGROUND: Advancements in science and various technologies have resulted in people having access to better health care, a good quality of life, and better economic situations, enabling humans to live longer than ever before. Research shows that the problems of loneliness and social isolation are c...
Autores principales: | , , |
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Formato: | Online Artículo Texto |
Lenguaje: | English |
Publicado: |
JMIR Publications
2022
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Materias: | |
Acceso en línea: | https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC8938833/ https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/35254273 http://dx.doi.org/10.2196/34221 |
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author | Thangavel, Gomathi Memedi, Mevludin Hedström, Karin |
author_facet | Thangavel, Gomathi Memedi, Mevludin Hedström, Karin |
author_sort | Thangavel, Gomathi |
collection | PubMed |
description | BACKGROUND: Advancements in science and various technologies have resulted in people having access to better health care, a good quality of life, and better economic situations, enabling humans to live longer than ever before. Research shows that the problems of loneliness and social isolation are common among older adults, affecting psychological and physical health. Information and communication technology (ICT) plays an important role in alleviating social isolation and loneliness. OBJECTIVE: The aim of this review is to explore ICT solutions for reducing social isolation or loneliness among older adults, the purpose of ICT solutions, and the evaluation focus of these solutions. This study particularly focuses on customized ICT solutions that either are designed from scratch or are modifications of existing off-the-shelf products that cater to the needs of older adults. METHODS: A scoping literature review was conducted. A search across 7 databases, including ScienceDirect, Association for Computing Machinery, PubMed, IEEE Xplore, PsycINFO, Scopus, and Web of Science, was performed, targeting ICT solutions for reducing and managing social isolation and loneliness among older adults. Articles published in English from 2010 to 2020 were extracted and analyzed. RESULTS: From the review of 39 articles, we identified 5 different purposes of customized ICT solutions focusing on reducing social isolation and loneliness. These were social communication, social participation, a sense of belonging, companionship, and feelings of being seen. The mapping of purposes of ICT solutions with problems found among older adults indicates that increasing social communication and social participation can help reduce social isolation problems, whereas fulfilling emotional relationships and feeling valued can reduce feelings of loneliness. In terms of customized ICT solution types, we found the following seven different categories: social network, messaging services, video chat, virtual spaces or classrooms with messaging capabilities, robotics, games, and content creation and management. Most of the included studies (30/39, 77%) evaluated the usability and acceptance aspects, and few studies (11/39, 28%) focused on loneliness or social isolation outcomes. CONCLUSIONS: This review highlights the importance of discussing and managing social isolation and loneliness as different but related concepts and emphasizes the need for future research to use suitable outcome measures for evaluating ICT solutions based on the problem. Even though a wide range of customized ICT solutions have been developed, future studies need to explore the recent emerging technologies, such as the Internet of Things and augmented or virtual reality, to tackle social isolation and loneliness among older adults. Furthermore, future studies should consider evaluating social isolation or loneliness while developing customized ICT solutions to provide more robust data on the effectiveness of the solutions. |
format | Online Article Text |
id | pubmed-8938833 |
institution | National Center for Biotechnology Information |
language | English |
publishDate | 2022 |
publisher | JMIR Publications |
record_format | MEDLINE/PubMed |
spelling | pubmed-89388332022-03-23 Customized Information and Communication Technology for Reducing Social Isolation and Loneliness Among Older Adults: Scoping Review Thangavel, Gomathi Memedi, Mevludin Hedström, Karin JMIR Ment Health Review BACKGROUND: Advancements in science and various technologies have resulted in people having access to better health care, a good quality of life, and better economic situations, enabling humans to live longer than ever before. Research shows that the problems of loneliness and social isolation are common among older adults, affecting psychological and physical health. Information and communication technology (ICT) plays an important role in alleviating social isolation and loneliness. OBJECTIVE: The aim of this review is to explore ICT solutions for reducing social isolation or loneliness among older adults, the purpose of ICT solutions, and the evaluation focus of these solutions. This study particularly focuses on customized ICT solutions that either are designed from scratch or are modifications of existing off-the-shelf products that cater to the needs of older adults. METHODS: A scoping literature review was conducted. A search across 7 databases, including ScienceDirect, Association for Computing Machinery, PubMed, IEEE Xplore, PsycINFO, Scopus, and Web of Science, was performed, targeting ICT solutions for reducing and managing social isolation and loneliness among older adults. Articles published in English from 2010 to 2020 were extracted and analyzed. RESULTS: From the review of 39 articles, we identified 5 different purposes of customized ICT solutions focusing on reducing social isolation and loneliness. These were social communication, social participation, a sense of belonging, companionship, and feelings of being seen. The mapping of purposes of ICT solutions with problems found among older adults indicates that increasing social communication and social participation can help reduce social isolation problems, whereas fulfilling emotional relationships and feeling valued can reduce feelings of loneliness. In terms of customized ICT solution types, we found the following seven different categories: social network, messaging services, video chat, virtual spaces or classrooms with messaging capabilities, robotics, games, and content creation and management. Most of the included studies (30/39, 77%) evaluated the usability and acceptance aspects, and few studies (11/39, 28%) focused on loneliness or social isolation outcomes. CONCLUSIONS: This review highlights the importance of discussing and managing social isolation and loneliness as different but related concepts and emphasizes the need for future research to use suitable outcome measures for evaluating ICT solutions based on the problem. Even though a wide range of customized ICT solutions have been developed, future studies need to explore the recent emerging technologies, such as the Internet of Things and augmented or virtual reality, to tackle social isolation and loneliness among older adults. Furthermore, future studies should consider evaluating social isolation or loneliness while developing customized ICT solutions to provide more robust data on the effectiveness of the solutions. JMIR Publications 2022-03-07 /pmc/articles/PMC8938833/ /pubmed/35254273 http://dx.doi.org/10.2196/34221 Text en ©Gomathi Thangavel, Mevludin Memedi, Karin Hedström. Originally published in JMIR Mental Health (https://mental.jmir.org), 07.03.2022. https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/This is an open-access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License (https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/), which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work, first published in JMIR Mental Health, is properly cited. The complete bibliographic information, a link to the original publication on https://mental.jmir.org/, as well as this copyright and license information must be included. |
spellingShingle | Review Thangavel, Gomathi Memedi, Mevludin Hedström, Karin Customized Information and Communication Technology for Reducing Social Isolation and Loneliness Among Older Adults: Scoping Review |
title | Customized Information and Communication Technology for Reducing Social Isolation and Loneliness Among Older Adults: Scoping Review |
title_full | Customized Information and Communication Technology for Reducing Social Isolation and Loneliness Among Older Adults: Scoping Review |
title_fullStr | Customized Information and Communication Technology for Reducing Social Isolation and Loneliness Among Older Adults: Scoping Review |
title_full_unstemmed | Customized Information and Communication Technology for Reducing Social Isolation and Loneliness Among Older Adults: Scoping Review |
title_short | Customized Information and Communication Technology for Reducing Social Isolation and Loneliness Among Older Adults: Scoping Review |
title_sort | customized information and communication technology for reducing social isolation and loneliness among older adults: scoping review |
topic | Review |
url | https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC8938833/ https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/35254273 http://dx.doi.org/10.2196/34221 |
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