Telehealth Among Elderly During Covid-19: A Scoping Review

Abstract

The COVID-19 pandemic has global impact, especially to vulnerable populations such as elderly. This population may be affected with health issues in which telehealth appears to be a potential platform to improve their quality of life. The study aimed at reporting current literature on the benefits of telehealth among elderly during COVID-19 pandemic.  The review emulates the five-phase framework of scoping reviews by Arksey and O’Malley, using three databases: MEDLINE, Scopus, and EBSCOhost. The MeSH term used were (("elderly" OR "older adult" OR "geriatric" OR "aged people") AND ("COVID-19" OR "COVID-19 pandemic)) AND ("telehealth " OR "telemedicine" OR "virtual consultation" OR " teleconsultation" OR "telecare"). A total of 390 articles were screened, of which 21 full-text articles were included. The papers were of systematic or scoping reviews (n=4), cross-sectional studies (n=6), longitudinal cohort studies (n=3), case reports (n=1), randomized control trials (n=1), qualitative studies (n=5) and 1 mixed method study. This review enlightened the role and benefits of telehealth services among the elderly in personal, psychosocial and environmental aspects. The barriers include their physical, cognitive and technical issues which limit telehealth utilization. Thus, recommendations were structured to enhance the efficiency in terms of technologically enabled aspects, patient-related factors, and provider-related factors. A rapid scale-up of telehealth services is significant for the provision of healthcare services among elderly. The accessibility of telehealth must be prioritized for older patients, their caregivers and health care provider to improve the quality of healthcare during the COVID-19 pandemic and beyond.