Older Patients Are Comfortable With Telehealth and Prefer It as an Option

Older patients are comfortable with telehealth

When it comes to telehealth, the stereotype is that it is preferred and used by younger individuals. But results from a survey of adult behavior by Independa, a health care technology company, found that adults older than 70 years had a high comfort level with telehealth and preferred having it as an option.

Of those surveyed, 93% of adults older than 70 years said they would like a telehealth option compared with 84% who said the same thing in 2022. Approximately 86% of older adults had a telehealth appointment in the past year compared with 75% in 2021. Of those who had a telehealth appointment, 85% enjoyed the experience compared with 74% in 2020.

Other key findings include the following:

• 66% of older adults are more concerned about the COVID-19 pandemic now than they were in 2021.
• 97% of children with older adult parents living alone are concerned about the health of their parents and worry about their isolation.
• The top 3 reasons older adult patients consider using telehealth is to have regular checkups with primary care, monitor chronic conditions, and monitor recovery from an illness.
• Respondents said that they are interested in teledentistry, remote mental health therapy and counseling, remote music therapy, and remote physical therapy.

“The pandemic isn’t over, but regardless, the new norm is to deliver more flexible, more personalized, more cost-effective, and more convenient health and wellness options in the home in general, but particularly for older adults,” Kian Saneii, founder and CEO of Independa, said in a statement.

Survey respondents were also asked about their technology habits. Two-thirds of respondents said they were only a little technically savvy, but two-thirds also found setting up telehealth appointments easy. When respondents were asked which screen devices they were most adept at using, the television was by far the highest-ranked device. In fact, survey results found that 94% of older adults watch television every day, with nearly 10% watching television for more than 9 hours per day.