Although baby boomers are expected to place a large burden on healthcare resources, consumer health technologies could help stem increasing needs and costs, according to a new study in the Journal of Medical Internet Research.
Although baby boomers are expected to place a large burden on healthcare resources, consumer health technologies could help stem increasing needs and costs, according to a new study in the Journal of Medical Internet Research.
The investigators, led by Cynthia LeRouge, PhD, considered using consumer health technology to improve provider-patient communication, health monitoring, and information access while enabling self-care.
“Fulfilling the promise of consumer health technologies to impact healthcare cost and enable healthcare consumers requires adoption by healthcare consumers,” the authors wrote. “Given their large numbers and growing healthcare needs, it is particularly important to understand what consumer health technologies baby boomers are ready to adopt.”
Of the 469 survey respondents studied, 258 were between the ages of 46 and 64 years, 72 were aged 18 to 45 years, and 139 were older than 64 years. Baby boomers were significantly more likely than the older age group to be ready to use 5 health technologies: health information websites, email, automated call centers, medical video conferencing, and texting. In fact, they were found to be similar to the younger age group in their readiness, according to the authors.
Baby boomers were less ready than the younger group to adopt podcasts, kiosks, smartphones, blogs, and wikis for healthcare purpose. However, they were still more likely than their older counterparts to use smartphones and podcasts.
The 2 barriers to consumer health technology adoption for baby boomers that the researchers studied were knowledge-based barriers and motivation-based barriers. The most fundamental of the former barriers is simply a lack of awareness, which partially explains new technology adoption differences among age cohorts, according to the authors. As for motivation-based barriers, they cited perceptions of usefulness and usability, efficiency of care delivery, cost, and improvement of life as examples.
“Baby boomers’ nuances regarding readiness to adopt and the barriers associated with the various forms of consumer health technology should be taken into account by those interested in promoting consumer health technologies use among baby boomers when developing applications, choosing technologies, preparing users for use, and in promotional tactics,” the authors concluded.
Emily Goldberg Shares Insights as a Genetic Counselor for Breast Cancer Risk Screening
October 30th 2023On this episode of Managed Care Cast, Emily Goldberg, MS, CGC, a genetic counselor at JScreen, breaks down how genetic screening for breast cancer works and why it is so important to increase awareness and education around these screening tools available to patients who may be at risk for cancer.
Listen
Examining Telehealth Uptake to Increase Equitable Care Access
January 26th 2023To mark the publication of The American Journal of Managed Care®’s 12th annual health IT issue, on this episode of Managed Care Cast, we speak with Christopher M. Whaley, PhD, health care economist at the RAND Corporation, who focuses on health economics issues, including the influence of the COVID-19 pandemic on health care delivery.
Listen
Need for Pharmacogenomic Testing in Mental Health Care Explored at AMCP 2024
April 17th 2024Presenters from Mayo Clinic discussed the benefits of implementing pharmacogenomic testing in mental health care for the betterment of patient outcomes, reducing medical costs, and more at the Academy of Managed Care Pharmacy (AMCP) 2024 annual meeting.
Read More
Study Suggests Walking 10K Steps Daily Improves QOL in Severe Hemophilia
April 12th 2024Among a small group of patients with severe hemophilia, researchers found that getting in more than 10,000 steps each day was linked to significant improvements in perceived physical health and quality of life (QOL).
Read More