Digital health intervention effect on older adults with chronic diseases living alone: Systematic literature review and meta-analysis (Preprint)

Abstract

The incidence of chronic diseases is increasing owing to the aging population; in particular, older adults living alone struggle with self-management and medical expenses. Digital health can contribute to medical cost management and health promotion, but its effectiveness for older adults living alone remains unclear. In a rapidly aging society, it is important to demonstrate the effect of digital health on improving the lives of older adults living alone and reducing the burden of chronic diseases.

This study was a systematic literature review and meta-analysis to confirm the effects of digital health interventions on self-management, quality of life, and medical factors for older adults with chronic diseases living alone.

PubMed, the Cumulative Index to Nursing and Allied Health Literature, and Cochrane CENTRAL electronic databases were used for literature published abroad and listed in journals until October 2023. The final 11 papers were used for analysis based on selection and exclusion criteria. Meta-analysis was employed to calculate the mean difference and standardized mean difference (SMD) for the selected literature using RevMan 5.4. The effect size and heterogeneity were calculated through 95% confidence interval.

As a result of conducting a meta-analysis of 8 out of 11 documents, there was a significant effect of self-management factors on moderate-to-vigorous physical activity (SMD = 0.08, Z = 2.07, P =.04). However, among self-management factors, LDL-cholesterol (SMD = -0.04, Z = 0.91, P =.36) did not show statistically significant results. Among the medical factors, general quality of life (SMD = 0.11, Z = 0.93, P =.35), depression (SMD = -3.95, Z = 1.59, P =.11), and hospital days (SMD = -1.57, Z = 0.91, P =.36) also did not show statistically significant results. However, it was confirmed that they improved after digital health intervention.

This study demonstrated that digital health interventions are effective in improving physical activity in older adults with chronic diseases living alone. However, owing to the characteristics of older adults living alone, there is a need to further expand digital health to combine care services that can manage diseases at home.

Published data were used in this study and in the preparation of this paper; hence no ethical approval was required.

RR2-