Abstract
Introduction/Objectives: As healthcare embraces telehealth, a need exists to understand factors that promote older adults’ telehealth usage, including the influence of age-related sensory impairments. The objective of this study was to describe older adults’ perceptions of telehealth and factors they considered before using telehealth within the framework of The Unified Theory of Acceptance and Use of Technology (UTAUT). Methods: This descriptive qualitative study collected data through semi-structured interviews. Twenty-four older adults were randomly selected from a pool of 103 participants who completed the initial UTAUT survey study. Individual interviews were conducted by telephone. Reflective thematic analysis was used to identify themes within the UTAUT construct that influence older adults’ use of telehealth. Results: Older adults identified preparedness, receptiveness, and willingness to use telehealth as important overarching factors to consider when using telehealth. These are connected to the UTAUT constructs: facilitating conditions, social influence, effort expectancy, and performance expectancy. Conclusions: This study supports UTAUT as an appropriate framework for assessing telehealth readiness and predicting behavioral intention to use telehealth. Our findings provide limited evidence that sensory impairments do not impact telehealth readiness unless the individual lacks appropriate adaptations.
| Original language | English |
|---|---|
| Journal | Journal of Primary Care and Community Health |
| Volume | 16 |
| DOIs | |
| State | Published - Jan 1 2025 |
Bibliographical note
Publisher Copyright:© The Author(s) 2025.
Funding
The authors recognize and acknowledge the standards set forth regarding the transparency and openness promotion guidelines and have properly cited relevant methodologies utilized. When possible, all citations are accompanied by persistent identifiers. We openly share all coding procedures, survey instruments, and study materials\u2014please e-mail the corresponding author. Due to ethical constraints, raw data may not be shared to maintain the confidentiality of participants. The research contained in this manuscript was not preregistered with an analysis plan in an independent institutional registry We could not have completed this research without the support of the following individuals Grace Loizou and Hannah Douglass, Ph.D., CCC-SLP. The author(s) disclosed receipt of the following financial support for the research, authorship, and/or publication of this article: This work was supported by the Kentucky Speech-Language-Hearing Association, Stanley Memorial Fund Scholarship.
| Funders | Funder number |
|---|---|
| Kentucky Speech-Language-Hearing Association |
Keywords
- access to care
- geriatrics
- hearing
- qualitative methods
- technology
- tele-medicine
- vision
ASJC Scopus subject areas
- Community and Home Care
- Public Health, Environmental and Occupational Health
