Skip to main content

mHealth Applications Use and Potential for Older Adults, Overview of

  • Living reference work entry
  • First Online:
Encyclopedia of Geropsychology

Synonyms

Mhealth synonyms include the following: eHealth; Mobile health; Telehealth; Telemedicine

Definitions

mHealth: mobile and wearable health information including sensing technologies and mobile web and mobile device applications (apps) with the potential to improve physical and mental well-being.

Introduction

Innovation in mobile and wearable health information and sensing technologies and applications (mHealth) has the potential to improve well-being, both physical and mental, and to reduce the cost of health care among older adults in numerous ways (Parker et al. 2013). From health monitoring and health education and behavior change to falls sensing and mobile health alerts to the simple pleasure of communication and connectedness, mobile technologies are changing the lives of older adults. The ongoing study of mHealth in fostering health behavior change among older adults will require a multidisciplinary approach to consider proximal (e.g., physical activity, chronic disease...

This is a preview of subscription content, log in via an institution to check access.

Access this chapter

Institutional subscriptions

References

  • Arnhold, M., Quade, M., & Kirch, W. (2014). Mobile applications for diabetics: A systematic review and expert-based usability evaluation considering the special requirements of diabetes patients age 50 years or older. Journal of Medical Internet Research, 16(4), e104.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Bacsu, J. R., Jeffery, B., Johnson, S., Martz, D., Novik, N., & Abonyi, S. (2012). Healthy aging in place: Supporting rural seniors’ health needs. Online Journal of Rural Nursing and Health Care, 12(2), 77–87.

    Google Scholar 

  • Bosco, A., & Lancioni, G. (2015). Assistive technologies promoting the experience of self for people with Alzheimer’s disease. Rivista Internazionale di Filosofia e Psicologia, 6(2), 406–416.

    Google Scholar 

  • Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC). (2003). Trends in aging – United States and worldwide. MMWR. Morbidity and Mortality Weekly Report, 52(6), 101.

    Google Scholar 

  • Cipriani, G., Lucetti, C., Nuti, A., & Danti, S. (2014). Wandering and dementia. Psychogeriatrics, 14(2), 135–142.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Delbaere, K., Valenzuela, T., Woodbury, A., Davies, T., Yeong, J., Steffens, D., Miles, L., Pickett, L., Zijlstra, G. A. R., Clemson, L., & Close, J. C. T. (2015). Evaluating the effectiveness of a home-based exercise programme delivered through a tablet computer for preventing falls in older community-dwelling people over 2 years: Study protocol for the Standing Tall randomised controlled trial. BMJ Open, 5(10), e009173.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Federal Interagency Forum on Aging-Related Statistics. (2012). Older Americans 2012: Key indicators of well-being. Federal Interagency Forum on Aging-Related Statistics. Washington, DC: U.S. Government Printing Office.

    Google Scholar 

  • Fiori, K. L., Antonucci, T. C., & Cortina, K. S. (2006). Social network typologies and mental health among older adults. The Journals of Gerontology Series B: Psychological Sciences and Social Sciences, 61(1), P25–P32.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Fox, S., & Duggan, M. (2012). Mobile health 2012. Pew Research Center: Internet Science and Technology. http://www.pewinternet.org/2012/11/08/mobile-health-2012/. Accessed 15 Jan 2016.

  • Gellis, Z. (2015). Telemental health. In Encyclopedia of geropsychology (pp. 1–6). Singapore: Springer Science + Business Media.

    Google Scholar 

  • Goins, R., Spencer, S., & Williams, K. (2011). Lay meanings of health among rural older adults in Appalachia. The Journal of Rural Health, 27, 13–20.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Graf, B., Reiser, U., Hagele, M., Mauz, K., & Klein, P. (2009). Robotic home assistant care-o-bot. Proceedings of the Advanced Robotics and its Social Impacts Workshop, 48, 139–144.

    Google Scholar 

  • Hale, K., Capra, S., & Bauer, J. (2015). A framework to assist health professionals in recommending high-quality apps for supporting chronic disease self-management: Illustrative assessment of type 2 diabetes apps. JMIR mHealth and uHealth, 3(3), e87.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Hong, Y., Vollmer Dahlke, D., Ory, M. G., Hochhalter, A., Reynolds, J., Purcell, N. P., Talwar, D., & Eugene, N. (2013). Designing iCanFit: A mobile-enabled Web application to promote physical activity for older cancer survivors. JMIR Research Protocols, 2(1), e12.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Hong, Y. A., Goldberg, D., Ory, M. G., Towne, S. D., Jr., Forjuoh, S. N., Kellstedt, D., & Wang, S. (2015). Efficacy of a mobile-enabled web app (iCanFit) in promoting physical activity among older cancer survivors: A pilot study. JMIR Cancer, 1(1), e7.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • http://www.americanbar.org/groups/law_aging/MyHealthCareWishesApp.html. Accessed 18 Jan 2016.

  • Hutto, C. J., Bell, C., Farmer, S., Fausset, C., Harley, L., Nguyen, J., & Fain, B. (2015). Social media gerontology: Understanding social media usage among older adults. In Web intelligence (Vol. 13, No. 1, pp. 69–87). Amsterdam: IOS Press.

    Google Scholar 

  • Knight, E., Stuckey, M. I., Prapavessis, H., & Petrella, R. J. (2014). Public health guidelines for physical activity: Is there an app for that? A review of android and apple app stores. JMIR mHealth and uHealth, 3(2), e43.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Kramarow, E., Chen, L. H, Hedegaard, H., & Warner, M. (2015). Deaths from unintentional injury among adults aged 65 and over: United States, 2000–2013 (NCHS Data Brief, No. 199). Hyattsville: National Center for Health Statistics.

    Google Scholar 

  • McCall, K., Keen, J., Farrer, K., Maguire, R., McCann, L., Johnston, B., et al. (2008). Perceptions of the use of a remote monitoring system in patients receiving palliative care at home. International Journal of Palliative Nursing, 14(9), 426–431.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Michie, S., Richardson, M., Johnston, M., Abraham, C., Francis, J., Hardeman, W., et al. (2013). The behavior change technique taxonomy (v1) of 93 hierarchically clustered techniques: Building an international consensus for the reporting of behavior change interventions. Annals of Behavioral Medicine, 46(1), 81–95.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Murray, S. A., Kendall, M., Boyd, K., & Sheikh, A. (2013). Illness trajectories and palliative care. International Perspectives on Public Health and Palliative Care, 30, 2017–2019.

    Google Scholar 

  • Omaki, E., Rizzutti, N., Shields, W., Zhu, J., McDonald, E., Stevens, M. W., & Gielen, A. (2016). A systematic review of technology-based interventions for unintentional injury prevention education and behaviour change. Injury Prevention.

    Google Scholar 

  • Ory, M. G., & Smith, M. L. (2015). Evidence-based programming for older adults. Research Topic in Frontiers in Public Health Education and Promotion. http://journal.frontiersin.org/article/10.3389/fpubh.2015.00136/full Accessed 15 Jan 2016.

  • Panicker, N. V., & Kumar, A. S. (2016). Tablet PC enabled body sensor system for rural telehealth applications. Hindawi Publishing Corporation International Journal of Telemedicine and Applications, 2016, Article ID 5747961, 1–9. http://dx.doi.org/10.1155/2016/5747961

  • Parker, S. J., Jessel, S., Richardson, J. E., & Reid, M. C. (2013). Older adults are mobile too! Identifying the barriers and facilitators to older adults’ use of mHealth for pain management. BMC Geriatrics, 13(1), 1.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Patil, R., Uusi-Rasi, K., Kannus, P., Karinkanta, S., & Sievänen, H. (2013). Concern about falling in older women with a history of falls: Associations with health, functional ability, physical activity and quality of life. Gerontology, 60(1), 22–30.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Petonito, G., & Muschert, G. W. (2015). Silver alert programs: An exploration of community sentiment regarding a policy solution to address the critical wandering problem in an aging population. In Handbook of community sentiment (pp. 253–266). New York: Springer.

    Google Scholar 

  • Pierce, C. (2001). The impact of culture of rural women’s descriptions of health. Journal of Multicultural Nursing & Health, 7, 50–53.

    Google Scholar 

  • Siegel, R. L., Miller, K. D., & Jemal, A. (2015). Cancer statistics, 2015. CA: A Cancer Journal for Clinicians, 65(1), 5–29.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Smarr, C. A., Mitzner, T. L., Beer, J. M., Prakash, A., Chen, T. L., Kemp, C. C., & Rogers, W. A. (2014). Domestic robots for older adults: Attitudes, preferences, and potential. International Journal of Social Robotics, 6(2), 229–247.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Smith, A. (2014). Older adults and technology use: Pew Research Center: Internet, Science and Technology (pp. 3–15). http://www.pewinternet.org/2014/04/03/older-adults-and-technology-use/. Accessed 10 Jan 2016.

  • Sourbati, M. (2009). It could be useful but not for me at the moment: Older people, Internet access and e-public service provision. New Media & Society, 11, 1083.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Tang, F., & Lee, Y. (2011). Social support networks and expectations for aging in place and moving. Research on Aging, 33, 444–464.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Vollmer Dahlke, D., Fair, K., Hong, Y. A., Beaudoin, C. E., Pulczinski, J., & Ory, M. G. (2015). Apps seeking theories: Results of a study on the use of health behavior change theories in cancer survivorship mobile apps. JMIR mHealth and uHealth, 3(1), e31.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Wildenbos, G. A., Peute, L. W., & Jaspers, M. (2015). A framework for evaluating mHealth tools for older patients on usability. Studies in Health Technology and Informatics, 210, 783.

    Google Scholar 

  • Ziegelmann, J. P., & Koll, N. (2015). Future directions in the study of health behavior among older adults. Gerontology, 61(5), 469–476.

    Article  Google Scholar 

Download references

Author information

Authors and Affiliations

Authors

Corresponding author

Correspondence to Deborah Vollmer Dahlke .

Editor information

Editors and Affiliations

Rights and permissions

Reprints and permissions

Copyright information

© 2016 Springer Science+Business Media Singapore

About this entry

Cite this entry

Vollmer Dahlke, D., Ory, M. (2016). mHealth Applications Use and Potential for Older Adults, Overview of. In: Pachana, N. (eds) Encyclopedia of Geropsychology. Springer, Singapore. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-981-287-080-3_289-1

Download citation

  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-981-287-080-3_289-1

  • Received:

  • Accepted:

  • Published:

  • Publisher Name: Springer, Singapore

  • Online ISBN: 978-981-287-080-3

  • eBook Packages: Springer Reference Social SciencesReference Module Humanities and Social SciencesReference Module Business, Economics and Social Sciences

Publish with us

Policies and ethics