scholarly journals The Effect of Chronic Diseases on the Use of Health Technology and Digital Services in the Elderly Population in Finland

Author(s):  
Jukka Mielonen ◽  
Ulla-Mari Kinnunen ◽  
Kaija Saranto ◽  
Anssi Kemppi ◽  
Hanna Kuusisto

Digital services are growing in the health-care field. The population in Europe is aging, and digital services are on the rise. There are also plenty of new health-care devices on the market. The aim of this study was to survey how elderly people cope with digital services or devices, especially if they are chronically ill. This quantitative study focuses on the impact of chronic diseases on the use of health technology and digital services. The target group of this study is Finnish people aged 65 or over. Based on the results, a chronic disease or disability is not an obstacle to the use of digital services or health-care technology in the Finnish elderly population. The main obstacles to the use of health technology or digital services are complexity, obscure text, or small font size. According to this study, elderly people seem to trust the device or application. Devices, applications, and online services should be designed so that elderly people’s diseases or ability to function are considered.

2019 ◽  
Vol 3 ◽  
pp. 52
Author(s):  
Minna Korpela ◽  
Piia Holmström

ABSTRACTThis thesis describes health care services for elderly people in Finland and Brazil, as well as health technology in both countries. The aim of the thesis is to provide information on the health technology for the elderly and to bring out their opinion about the need for digital services and what kind of digital solutions they would find useful as they get older. Our thesis is a qualitative research in which the observation material is in form of a questionnaire. The material is compared between the target countries. The target group is people who are over 75 years old in Finland and over 65 years old in Brazil and who are still living at home. The main objective is to identify the need for digital health services and solutions expressed by elderly citizens living in Brazil and Finland. Our research tasks: What kind of digital services home living elderly over 75 years old in Finland and over 65 years old in Brazil think it might be useful in connection with their health care? What kind of health services and digital solutions have an offer in Brazil and Finland? How is customer- oriented service implemented with digital solutions? According to the results, both in Finland and Brazil, elderly people felt that technology could be useful in terms of access to information and security and they were looking for ways to get help in everyday activities. In Finland, more technological solutions were available than in Brazil for healthcare.Keywords: Digitalization. Ethics. Succesful aging. RESUMOEsta tese descreve os serviços de saúde para idosos na Finlândia e no Brasil, bem como a tecnologia em saúde nos dois países. O objetivo da tese é fornecer informações sobre a tecnologia de saúde para idosos e expor suas opiniões sobre a necessidade de serviços digitais e que tipo de soluções digitais eles acham úteis à medida que envelhecem. Nossa tese é uma pesquisa qualitativa na qual o material de observação é em forma de questionário. O material é comparado entre os países-alvo. O público-alvo são pessoas com mais de 75 anos na Finlândia e com mais de 65 anos no Brasil e que ainda moram em casa. O objetivo principal é identificar a necessidade de soluções e serviços digitais de saúde expressos por idosos residentes no Brasil e na Finlândia. Nossas tarefas de pesquisa: Que tipo de serviços digitais para idosos que têm mais de 75 anos na Finlândia e mais de 65 anos no Brasil acham que pode ser útil em conexão com seus cuidados de saúde? Que tipo de serviços de saúde e soluções digitais oferecem no Brasil e na Finlândia? Como o serviço orientado ao cliente é implementado com soluções digitais? De acordo com os resultados, tanto na Finlândia quanto no Brasil, os idosos sentiram que a tecnologia poderia ser útil em termos de acesso à informação e segurança e estavam procurando maneiras de obter ajuda nas atividades cotidianas. Na Finlândia, mais soluções tecnológicas estavam disponíveis do que no Brasil para a saúde.Palavras-chave: Digitalização. Ética. Envelhecimento bem-sucedido.


1999 ◽  
Vol 55 (3) ◽  
pp. 9-14
Author(s):  
C. J. Eales

Health care systems for elderly people should aim to delay the onset of illness, reducing the final period of infirmity and illness to the shortest possible time. The most effective way to achieve this is by health education and preventative medicine to maintain mobility and function. Changes in life style even in late life may result in improved health, effectively decreasing the incidence of chronic diseases associated with advancing age. This paper presents the problems experienced by elderly persons with chronic diseases and disabilities with indications for meaningful therapeutic interventions.


2018 ◽  
Vol ahead-of-print (ahead-of-print) ◽  
Author(s):  
Irena Canjuga ◽  
Danica Železnik ◽  
Marijana Neuberg ◽  
Marija Božicevic ◽  
Tina Cikac

Purpose The purpose of this paper is to explore the impact of self-care on the prevalence of loneliness among elderly people living in retirement homes and older people living in their homes/communities. Design/methodology/approach The research was conducted through standardized SELSA-L assessment loneliness questionnaires and the Self Care Assessment Worksheet for self-care assessment. The results were processed using the Kruskal–Wallis test. Findings The obtained results have shown that impaired self-care ability affects the prevalence of loneliness among the elderly almost the same in both groups of participants. However, regarding the relationship between the state of health and self-care, only a statistically significant difference in the prevalence of loneliness is found in the case of the participants living in their homes, with the worst health condition affecting the poorer psychological care. Research limitations/implications It is necessary to point out the limitations of the research, primarily sample limitations and the selected design of the study. The sample consisted of two different and relatively small groups of participants which could adversely affect the representativeness of the sample and reduce the possibility of generalising the results. The next limiting factor is the age distribution the authors used in the research, where the age of the participants as a very important variable was collected by age range and not precisely which consequently resulted in inequality in subgroup sizes. Thus, the middle age (75–85) covers up to ten years, which is a huge range at an older age and can mean major differences in functional ability, and can impact the self-care assessment. Practical implications Nurses are indispensable in care for the elderly and they need to promote and encourage self-care of the elderly through health care. Elderly people living in retirement homes should be allowed to participate equally in health care in order to preserve their own autonomy and dignity. However, to benefit those who live in their homes, nurses should be connected to the local community and thus stimulate various forms of preventative (testing blood sugar levels, blood pressure and educating on the importance of preventive examinations) or recreational activities in the environment of elderly people with the goal of preserving their functional abilities. Originality/value The impact of self-care on loneliness was not sufficiently researched, and this paper contributed to understanding the complexity of loneliness phenomena among the elderly with the aim of developing a model of prevention.


2020 ◽  
Vol 3 (1) ◽  
pp. 47
Author(s):  
Abdul Gani Soulissa

The world’s elderly population is growing faster than other age groups. The World Health Organization states that in 2020, Indonesia’s elderly population will reach 11.34% of the total population, or around 28.8 million people. The increasing number of elderly people can be a challenge for clinicians due to the degenerative changes caused by chronic diseases, treatment of chronic diseases, systemic conditions, and oral health care accessibility. The purpose of this study was to analyze the factors that increase the risk of periodontal disease in the elderly. Over the last few years, a lot of research has focused on identifying the relationship between periodontal disease and systemic disease as well as the link between periodontal disease and aging. Increased age relates directly and proportionally with increased prevalence and severity of periodontal disease. Furthermore, an increase in age causes a decrease in motoric function and an increase in comorbidities and their treatments in the elderly. The aging process causes cementum surface irregularities, inhibition of osteoblast activity, and reduction in the number of fibroblasts. Loss of attachment and alveolar bone resorption was affected by frequent exposure to other risk factors. The risk factors that influence the development of periodontal disease in the elderly include systemic diseases, such as diabetes mellitus and osteoporosis, systemic conditions, such as obesity, metabolic syndrome, and stress, treatment of systemic diseases, and limited access to oral health care. Although the potential link between periodontal disease and systemic disease has been established, the extent of this relationship has not yet been clearly explained. Understanding the factors that influence periodontal disease in the elderly is important because it may provide a better understanding of the treatment. The multiple risk factors that cause periodontal disease in elderly patients require special attention involving multidisciplinary teams.


2016 ◽  
Vol 4 (1) ◽  
Author(s):  
Kiran Yadav ◽  
Prof Sunita Mishra

The elderly population is large in general and growing due to advancement of health care education. These people are faced with numerous physical, psychological and social role changes that challenge their sense of self and capacity to live happily. The present study was conducted to assess the relationship of specific satisfaction in biogerontology and social gerontological and medical gerontology. The present study reveals that health supports is positively and highly significantly related to using care services and suffer from disease of aged persons. The main purpose of this research was to find out the mean difference between old age home and residing in their home in suffer from disease and using care services .The total 120 elderly (60 elderly in old age home and 60 residing in their home) of age range 60-80 year.  The study was carried out in Lucknow. Multistage sampling technique was fallowed in the present study. The samples of this study were personally and individually contacted and data was obtained through face to face interview. The research tool for hospital anxiety and used the care services and health care scale was used .and the test was applied to check the difference of suffer from disease Asthma, diabetes, cardiovascular disease, stomach /bowel disease and using care services the ANOVA method used to check the difference .Result reveals that significant difference in suffer from  disease and using care services–old age with respect to both old age with respect to both old age home and residing in their home .While the difference between suffer from  disease and using care services reveals and the elderly people who live in old age home suffer from disease and using care services and residing in their home elderly people live with family and happy and significant difference were found in disease and using care services  in old age.


Author(s):  
L.B. Gurung ◽  
G. Paudel ◽  
U.N. Yadav

Background The elderly population is in increasing trend all over the world. Elderly people experience many physiological, biological and psychological changes. The general objective of the study is to assess the utilization of health care services among the elderly population of Butwal sub-metropolitan city.Methods A quantitative descriptive-cross sectional study, with a total number of 212 elderly people residing in Butwal sub-metropolitan city, was selected for the study purpose. The study period was from March to October 2015. The samples were randomly selected from the sampling frame of 3 different wards of Butwal sub-metropolitan city. Information was collected using an interviewer administered semi-structured questionnaire. Chi-square test was used to identify the factors associated with the utilization of health care services among elderly population.Results Our findings reveal that 84.4% of elderly people visited to the health facility during past 1 year. There were more females (50.9%) than males (49.1%). Majority of elderly people were diagnosed with one of the chronic ailment; were under regular medication. More than 4/5th (84.9%) of older adults rated “satisfactory” to their health condition. Monthly family income, chronic disease, elderly on medication and self-rated health status are statistically significant with utilization of health care services at 95% level of confidence.Conclusions The finding suggests that monthly family income, chronic disease, elderly on medication and self rated health are strongly associated with utilization of health care services by elderly people. Thus the study suggests further interventions to improve the health care service utilization by elderly people.Journal of Manmohan Memorial Institute of Health Sciences Vol. 2 2016 p.27-36


2021 ◽  
Vol 28 (Supplement_1) ◽  
Author(s):  
L Lopes Do Nascimento ◽  
DQO Viana ◽  
LNTR Rodrigues

Abstract Funding Acknowledgements Type of funding sources: None. Introduction Primary health care (PHC) is the first level of health care, and it includes health promotion and protection, as well as the prevention of aggravations from chronic diseases and comorbidities. The cardiovascular physiotherapy program in PHC is an important ally in prevention chronic diseases and maintaining functional capacity.  Purpose: to evaluate the impact of a cardiovascular physiotherapy program on a functional capacity of elderly people in primary care. Methods: This is a randomized clinical trial, carried out with 30 elderly people who attended the FISIOCAP (cardiovascular physiotherapy program in primary care) program for at least 6 months. The assessment of functional capacity was performed through the six-minute walk (6MWT) and 1-min sit-to-stand test (1-MSTS). The patients were submitted to a supervised exercise program lasting 90 minutes, twice a week, for a period of 16 weeks. Each session consisted of a warm-up phase (10 minutes), conditioning (60 minutes), calm down (10 minutes) and health education (10 minutes). At the end of 16 weeks, the elderly underwent a reassessment on the 1MSTS and 6MWT. Results: After the cardiovascular physiotherapy program, the participants increased the distance covered by the 6MWT by 19% (p = 0.002) and significantly exceeded the distance covered predicted for gender and age. In 1MSTS, the participants obtained a significant improvement in the number of repetitions in the test (25.25 ± 5.72 to 27.67 ± 5.55, p = 0.04). Conclusion: The cardiovascular physiotherapy program significantly benefited the functional capacity of elderly patients attending PHC.


2020 ◽  
Author(s):  
huiling dong ◽  
Bingyi Wu ◽  
Qunhong Wu

Abstract Background: Child malnutrition is not only common in developing countries, but also an important issue faced by developed countries. This study aimed to explore the influence and degree of childhood starvation on the health of the elderly population, which providing a reference for formulating health-related policies under the concept of full-life cycle health. Methods: Based on CLHLS longitudinal data in 2008, 2011 and 2014, this paper took a total of 13,185 elderly people aged 65-99 years as the target population. By IMaCH software, with age, gender, and income level as the control variables, and the healthy life expectancy of the elderly in China was measured. The[test was used to explore the differences in socio-economic status of elderly people with or without starvation in childhood. The paired t test was used to analyze the difference both of healthy life expectancy and healthy life expectancy proportion accounted for remaining life. Results: (1) Transition probabilities in health-disability, health-death and disability-death(P<0.05) all showed an upward trend with age, where the elderly who experienced starvation in childhood were higher than those without such an experience. However, the probability of disability-health recovery showed a downward trend with age, whereas the elderly who experienced starvation in childhood were lower than those without starvation(P<0.05).(2) For the elderly who experienced starvation in childhood, the health indicators of the average life expectancy, healthy life expectancy, and healthy life expectancy proportion accounted for the remaining life were lower than those of the elderly without childhood starvation (P<0.05).Conclusions: The negative impact of childhood starvation on health through the life course till old age, has a persistent negative cumulative effect on the quantity and quality of life for the elderly population; Therefore, it is important to pay attention to the nutritional status of children in poor families from the perspective of social policy-making.


2004 ◽  
Vol 18 (1) ◽  
pp. 85-91 ◽  
Author(s):  
Maria Gabriela Haye Biazevic ◽  
Edgard Michel-Crosato ◽  
Fabíola Iagher ◽  
Cleiton Eduardo Pooter ◽  
Silvia Letícia Correa ◽  
...  

The objective of this study was to investigate the impact of oral health conditions on the quality of life of elderly people in Joaçaba - SC, in Southern Brazil. A survey based on systematic sampling of clusters was carried out with 183 elderly people that belong to old age groups. The survey was conducted in order to assess the oral conditions of the participants (use of and need for prosthesis) based on the criteria from the World Health Organization publication "Oral Health Surveys, Basic Methods", 4th edition. The oral health impact profile (OHIP) was used to evaluate the impact of oral condition in the quality of life. ABIPEME (Brazilian Association of Market Research Institutes) criterion was used, together with the level of education and the number of people in the household to determine social inequalities. The participants were mostly women (82%) and the OHIP mean was 10.35. No correlation was observed between the OHIP level and formal education or between OHIP and number of residents per household. There was a correlation of 0.240 (p = 0.001) between ABIPEME and OHIP. The OHIP mean for those not using maxillary prosthesis was 12.48 and the mean for those using it was 9.81 (p = 0.399). The mean OHIP for those in need of maxillary prosthesis for those who did not need it was 13.00 and 8.88, respectively (p = 0.014). The same trend was found for the use and need for mandibular prosthesis. The conclusion was that the need for maxillary and mandibular prosthesis impacted the quality of life among the elderly population of Joaçaba.


2021 ◽  
Vol 21 (1) ◽  
Author(s):  
Shreya Banerjee

Abstract Background Population aging poses a demographic burden on a country such as India with inadequate social security systems and very low public investment in health sector. This challenge of accelerated demographic transition is coupled by the rural-urban disparity in access to healthcare services among the elderly people in India. An important objective of India’s National Health Policy (2017) is to “progressively achieve universal health coverage” which is posited upon mitigating the sub-national disparity that necessitates identifying the drivers of the disparity for targeted policy intervention. This study, therefore, makes an attempt towards the exploration of the prominent contributory factors behind the rural-urban gap in utilisation of healthcare among the older population in India. Methods The analysis has been done by using the unit level data of Social Consumption: Health (Schedule number 25.0) of the 75th round of the National sample Survey conducted during July 2017–June 2018. Two binary logistic models have been proposed to capture the crude and the adjusted association between health seeking behaviour and place of residence (rural/ urban). To compute the group differences (between rural and urban) in the rate of healthcare utilization among the elderly population in India and to decompose these differences into the major contributing factors, Fairlie’s decomposition method has been employed. Results The logistic regression models established a strong association between place of residence and likelihood of healthcare utilisation among the Indian elderly people. The results of the Fairlie’s decomposition analysis revealed considerable rural-urban inequality disfavouring the rural residents and health care utilisation was found to be 7 percentage points higher among the older population residing in urban India than their rural counterparts. Level of education and economic status, both of which are indicators of a person’s Socio-Economic Status, were the two major determinants of the existing rural-urban differential in healthcare utilisation, together explaining 41% of the existing rural-urban differential. Conclusion Public health care provisions need to be strengthened both in terms of quality and outreach by way of greater public investments in the health sector and by building advanced health infrastructure in the rural areas. Implementation of poverty alleviation programmes and ensuring social-security of the elderly are also indispensable in bringing about equity in healthcare utilisation.


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