A rapid review of the effectiveness of interventions for addressing digital exclusion in older adults

This rapid review was conducted as part of the Evidence Service’s collaboration with Heath and Care Research Wales

Next update: Update not planned

Contact for queries and feedback

Introduction

Older adults are the largest group of people who don’t use the internet but more and more health and social care services are going on-line. It’s important to understand how to support older adults so that they can make the most of the digital world.

Digital exclusion might be due to not having access to the internet, or not knowing how to get connected or being unable to afford the internet.

This review wanted to see how effective current actions have been in supporting older adults in accessing the internet for their care needs.

Main points

How up to date is this evidence?

The review included evidence available up until November 2023. Included studies were published between 2018 and 2023.

What we found

A range of evidence was produced from the studies which were looked at.  Broadly speaking this seemed to demonstrate that the older adults who took part in the studies were in favour of their involvement. 

Looking closely at the results of the studies showed there wasn’t much evidence to suggest that the support given to older adults using traditional activities led to an increase in their use of on-line technology.

There was weak evidence to show that activities using games, support from younger people and special software actually improved digital ability, confidence or acceptance of technology. The evidence of cost effectiveness was also very uncertain.   

Most of the studies included in the review were of low quality and, as some of them were not conducted in the UK, they may not be relevant for us. There were limited studies that considered cost effectiveness.  No studies looked at language barriers or access to and affordability of the internet.

What this means

Further UK based research would be beneficial to understand the effectiveness, including cost, of interventions to improve digital exclusion in older adults.

This rapid review did show some possible benefits of education in improving digital ‘literacy’ and acceptance of technology from older adults. However, to reduce digital exclusion in older adults it may be important to remove barriers like access to the internet and affordability of devices.

Education may help to reduce lack of confidence and worry over older people’s ability to use digital technologies.

It is important to consider that older adults should have the choice to interact with essential services physically (offline) or digitally. With the increasing digitalisation of services, it is important that older members of the community who do not wish to use digital technologies, are not left behind.

Technical information

Our Rapid Reviews use a variation of the systematic review approach, abbreviating or omitting some components to generate the evidence to inform stakeholders promptly whilst maintaining attention to bias.

Author:

Mel McAulay