Tracking the digital health gap in elderly: A study in Italian remote areas.

Autor: Vainieri M; Management and Healthcare Laboratory, Institute of Management, Sant'Anna School of Advanced Studies of Pisa, Pisa, Italy., Vandelli A; Management and Healthcare Laboratory, Institute of Management, Sant'Anna School of Advanced Studies of Pisa, Pisa, Italy. Electronic address: andrea.vandelli@santannapisa.it., Benvenuti SC; SocioTechLab, Rome, Italy., Bertarelli G; Department of Economics, Ca' Foscari University of Venice, Venice, Italy.
Jazyk: angličtina
Zdroj: Health policy (Amsterdam, Netherlands) [Health Policy] 2023 Jul; Vol. 133, pp. 104842. Date of Electronic Publication: 2023 May 25.
DOI: 10.1016/j.healthpol.2023.104842
Abstrakt: The Covid-19 pandemic has provided a major innovative thrust to public services regarding their digitization to continue providing an effective response to the population's needs and to reduce management costs. However, there has been a partial lack of those welfare policies that can provide an adequate response to the elderly segment of the population, which is most affected by the introduction of new technologies into the public sphere. This study analyses the digital gap in health in the elderly living in remote areas of Italy and investigates the use of digital devices for health purposes. It compares the use of digital solutions for health with people's common digital competencies and their willingness to use them. A descriptive analysis of the sample was constructed to verify the different responses of the elderly by age, gender, educational qualification, and geographic area. Furthermore, regression analyses have been conducted to test whether there is any dependent effect among the elderly's characteristics or geographic areas. The results highlight the existence of a potential digital health gap among the elderly in remote areas of Italy both due to infrastructural issues and the lack of digital skills. The latter are positively correlated with educational qualification, such that it is also possible to highlight differences between age groups analysed and shape future welfare policies to reduce digital inequality.
Competing Interests: Declaration of Competing Interest The Authors declare that there is no conflict of interest and do not receive a financial support for the research, authorship, and/or publication of this article.
(Copyright © 2023. Published by Elsevier B.V.)
Databáze: MEDLINE
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