Customised Information and Communication Technology for Reducing Social Isolation and Loneliness Among Older Adults: A Systematic Review (Preprint)

2021 ◽  
Author(s):  
Gomathi Thangavel ◽  
Mevludin Memedi ◽  
Karin Hedström
Keyword(s):  
Older Adults ◽  
Social Isolation ◽  
Information And Communication Technology ◽  
Communication Technology ◽  
Social Participation ◽  
Social Communication ◽  
Future Research ◽  
Future Studies ◽  
Wide Range ◽  
Information And Communication

BACKGROUND The advancements in sciences and various technologies have resulted in people having access to better healthcare, a good quality of life and better economic situations enabling humans to live longer than ever before. Research shows that problems of loneliness and social isolation are common among older adults affecting psychological and physical health. Information and communication technology (ICT) plays an important role in alleviating social isolation and loneliness OBJECTIVE Thus, the aim of this review is to explore ICT solutions and the purposes of those ICT solutions for reducing social isolation or loneliness among older adults. This study particularly focuses on customised ICT solutions that are either designed from scratch or modifications of existing off-the-shelf products catering for the needs of older adults METHODS A systematic literature review was conducted. A search across seven databases including Science Direct, Association for Computing Machinery, PubMed, IEEE Xplore, PsychINFO, Scopus and Web of Science was performed targeting ICT solutions for reducing and managing social isolation and loneliness among older adults. Articles published in English from 2010 to 2020 were extracted and analysed RESULTS From the review of 39 articles, we identified five different purposes of customised ICT solutions, focusing on reducing social isolation and/or loneliness. These are ‘social communication’, ‘social participation’, a ‘sense of belonging', ‘companionship’ and ‘feelings of being seen’. The mapping of purposes of ICT solutions with problems found among older adults indicates that increasing social communication and social participation can help to reduce social isolation problems, whereas fulfilling emotional relationships and feeling valued can reduce feelings of loneliness. In terms of customised ICT solution types, we found seven different categories: ‘social network’, ‘messaging services’, ‘video chat’, ‘virtual spaces or classrooms with messaging capabilities’, ‘robotics’, ‘games’ and ‘content creation and management’ CONCLUSIONS This review highlights the importance of discussing and managing social isolation and loneliness as different but related concepts and emphasises the need for future research to design suitable outcome measures for evaluating ICT solutions based on their solution purposes. Even though, a wide range of customised ICT solutions have been developed, future studies need to explore the recent emerging technologies like the Internet of Things and augmented or virtual reality etc., to tackle social isolation and loneliness among older people. Also, future studies should consider evaluating the appropriate outcome of social isolation or loneliness while developing customised ICT solutions to provide more robust data on the effectiveness of the solutions

scholarly journals Older Adults’ Loneliness, Social Isolation, and Physical Information and Communication Technology in the Era of Ambient Assisted Living: A Systematic Literature Review (Preprint)

2021 ◽  
Author(s):  
Rita Latikka ◽  
Rosana Rubio-Hernández ◽  
Elena Simona Lohan ◽  
Juho Rantala ◽  
Fernando Nieto Fernández ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Older Adults ◽  
Literature Review ◽  
Social Isolation ◽  
Information And Communication Technology ◽  
Communication Technology ◽  
Systematic Literature Review ◽  
Assisted Living ◽  
Ambient Assisted Living ◽  
Smart Homes ◽  
Information And Communication

BACKGROUND Loneliness and social isolation can have severe effects on human health and well-being. Partial solutions to combat these circumstances in demographically aging societies have been sought from the field of information and communication technology (ICT). OBJECTIVE This systematic literature review investigates the research conducted on older adults’ loneliness and social isolation, and physical ICTs, namely robots, wearables, and smart homes, in the era of ambient assisted living (AAL). The aim is to gain insight into how technology can help overcome loneliness and social isolation other than by fostering social communication with people and what the main open-ended challenges according to the reviewed studies are. METHODS The data were collected from 7 bibliographic databases. A preliminary search resulted in 1271 entries that were screened based on predefined inclusion criteria. The characteristics of the selected studies were coded, and the results were summarized to answer our research questions. RESULTS The final data set consisted of 23 empirical studies. We found out that ICT solutions such as smart homes can help detect and predict loneliness and social isolation, and technologies such as robotic pets and some other social robots can help alleviate loneliness to some extent. The main open-ended challenges across studies relate to the need for more robust study samples and study designs. Further, the reviewed studies report technology- and topic-specific open-ended challenges. CONCLUSIONS Technology can help assess older adults’ loneliness and social isolation, and alleviate loneliness without direct interaction with other people. The results are highly relevant in the COVID-19 era, where various social restrictions have been introduced all over the world, and the amount of research literature in this regard has increased recently.

scholarly journals Older Adults’ Loneliness, Social Isolation, and Physical Information and Communication Technology in the Era of Ambient Assisted Living: A Systematic Literature Review

10.2196/28022 ◽  
2021 ◽  
Vol 23 (12) ◽  
pp. e28022
Author(s):  
Rita Latikka ◽  
Rosana Rubio-Hernández ◽  
Elena Simona Lohan ◽  
Juho Rantala ◽  
Fernando Nieto Fernández ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Older Adults ◽  
Literature Review ◽  
Social Isolation ◽  
Information And Communication Technology ◽  
Communication Technology ◽  
Systematic Literature Review ◽  
Assisted Living ◽  
Ambient Assisted Living ◽  
Smart Homes ◽  
Information And Communication

Background Loneliness and social isolation can have severe effects on human health and well-being. Partial solutions to combat these circumstances in demographically aging societies have been sought from the field of information and communication technology (ICT). Objective This systematic literature review investigates the research conducted on older adults’ loneliness and social isolation, and physical ICTs, namely robots, wearables, and smart homes, in the era of ambient assisted living (AAL). The aim is to gain insight into how technology can help overcome loneliness and social isolation other than by fostering social communication with people and what the main open-ended challenges according to the reviewed studies are. Methods The data were collected from 7 bibliographic databases. A preliminary search resulted in 1271 entries that were screened based on predefined inclusion criteria. The characteristics of the selected studies were coded, and the results were summarized to answer our research questions. Results The final data set consisted of 23 empirical studies. We found out that ICT solutions such as smart homes can help detect and predict loneliness and social isolation, and technologies such as robotic pets and some other social robots can help alleviate loneliness to some extent. The main open-ended challenges across studies relate to the need for more robust study samples and study designs. Further, the reviewed studies report technology- and topic-specific open-ended challenges. Conclusions Technology can help assess older adults’ loneliness and social isolation, and alleviate loneliness without direct interaction with other people. The results are highly relevant in the COVID-19 era, where various social restrictions have been introduced all over the world, and the amount of research literature in this regard has increased recently.

scholarly journals Ethnomethodology Study of Digitalized Social Communication Apprehension in Basmala Youth Community Members

2020 ◽  
Vol 5 (1) ◽  
Author(s):  
Tuti Widiastuti ◽  
Rajab Ritonga
Keyword(s):  
Information And Communication Technology ◽  
Communication Technology ◽  
Social Communication ◽  
Communication Apprehension ◽  
Communication Process ◽  
Community Members ◽  
Face To Face ◽  
Information And Communication ◽  
Youth Community

In the era of Society 5.0, the role of communication technology was further enhanced so that it made it easier for humans in various aspects, such as economic, social, cultural, educational, health, business, and so on. However, the sophistication of information and communication technology causes interpersonal to interact less rarely face to face and face to face because it is more comfortable interacting through cyberspace through social media. This research was conducted to illustrate how social communication from understanding anxiety in the digital age. In conducting interactions, each individual can experience communication fears where individuals tend to experience anxiety because too much information is received. The group can be one of the very positive spheres of communication. The object of this research is Basmala members, who have various backgrounds as members of Islamic spiritual groups who uphold religious values. This research uses a qualitative research method with an ethnomethodology type that looks at how the disclosure of reality in people's lives and how individuals receive, learn, apply information provided in the community. Basmala is an Islamic spiritual organization whose members are students. As a religious organization where the culture and activities of the organization also have characteristics that can lead to the basic rules of religion that are expected to familiarize its members to deal with differences in the communication process to overcome the causes of communication apprehension

scholarly journals The Role of Information and Communication Technology (ICT) for Older Adults’ Decision-Making Related to Health, and Health and Social Care Services in Daily Life—A Scoping Review

2021 ◽  
Vol 19 (1) ◽  
pp. 151
Author(s):  
Susanna Nordin ◽  
Jodi Sturge ◽  
Maria Ayoub ◽  
Allyson Jones ◽  
Kevin McKee ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Older Adults ◽  
Decision Making ◽  
Information And Communication Technology ◽  
Communication Technology ◽  
Scoping Review ◽  
Social Care ◽  
Care Services ◽  
Health And Social Care ◽  
Information And Communication

Information and communication technology (ICT) can potentially support older adults in making decisions and increase their involvement in decision-making processes. Although the range of technical products has expanded in various areas of society, knowledge is lacking on the influence that ICT has on older adults’ decision-making in everyday situations. Based on the literature, we aimed to provide an overview of the role of ICT in home-dwelling older adults’ decision-making in relation to health, and health and social care services. A scoping review of articles published between 2010 and 2020 was undertaken by searching five electronic databases. Finally, 12 articles using qualitative, quantitative, and mixed-method designs were included. The articles were published in journals representing biology and medicine, nursing, informatics, and computer science. A majority of the articles were published in the last five years, and most articles came from European countries. The results are presented in three categories: (i) form and function of ICT for decision-making, (ii) perceived value and effect of ICT for decision-making, and (iii) factors influencing ICT use for decision-making. According to our findings, ICT for decision-making in relation to health, and health and social care services was more implicitly described than explicitly described, and we conclude that more research on this topic is needed. Future research should engage older adults and health professionals in developing technology based on their needs. Further, factors that influence older adults’ use of ICT should be evaluated to ensure that it is successfully integrated into their daily lives.

scholarly journals Microgrid Cyber-Security: Review and Challenges toward Resilience

2020 ◽  
Vol 10 (16) ◽  
pp. 5649 ◽  
Author(s):  
Bushra Canaan ◽  
Bruno Colicchio ◽  
Djaffar Ould Abdeslam
Keyword(s):  
Power Systems ◽  
Information And Communication Technology ◽  
Communication Technology ◽  
Cyber Security ◽  
Relevant Literature ◽  
Research Direction ◽  
Future Research ◽  
Future Research Direction ◽  
Information And Communication ◽  
A Current

The importance of looking into microgrid security is getting more crucial due to the cyber vulnerabilities introduced by digitalization and the increasing dependency on information and communication technology (ICT) systems. Especially with a current academic unanimity on the incremental significance of the microgrid’s role in building the future smart grid, this article addresses the existing approaches attending to cyber-physical security in power systems from a microgrid-oriented perspective. First, we start with a brief descriptive review of the most commonly used terms in the latest relevant literature, followed by a comprehensive presentation of the recent efforts explored in a manner that helps the reader to choose the appropriate future research direction among several fields.

scholarly journals Security implications of the personal information environment

2018 ◽  
Vol 210 ◽  
pp. 04041
Author(s):  
Pavel Valášek
Keyword(s):  
Statistical Methods ◽  
Information And Communication Technology ◽  
Communication Technology ◽  
Personal Information ◽  
Information Environment ◽  
Future Research ◽  
Security Applications ◽  
Information And Communication ◽  
Suitable Form ◽  
Preliminary Study

This article discusses a security in a background of the personal information environment. A role and importance of personal information environment and its security is on the rise due to the increasing inclusion of information and communication technology. In many cases, the focus of conducted studies is on the technological part of the problem. In this article, results of the user-oriented study are presented. The main aim was to establish how users perceive security applications. As a preliminary study, a method of survey was utilized. Gathered data were evaluated using common statistical methods. Results of the study are presented in a suitable form with a consideration of a large variety of answers between users. Results show areas of technology and user disagreements. These established differences will be used as a basis of the future research.

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