Older adults' perceptions of community-based telehealth wellness programs: a qualitative study

As older adult populations rise in the United States, community-based telehealth programs are gaining momentum because of their ability to provide telehealth services for community-dwelling older adults at a lower cost compared to home-based telehealth services. The success of such community-based telehealth programs heavily depends on end-user engagement and acceptance; however, few studies to date have explored these issues. We conducted an interview study with 14 active and 3 inactive participants of a community-based Telehealth Intervention Program for Seniors (TIPS) to examine older individuals' perceived benefits and barriers to participating in community-based telehealth programs as well as strategies to improve those programs. We found that older adults had a positive experience toward the use of telehealth services in a community setting, including benefits like monitoring health status and enabling socialization. There were no perceived barriers about the telehealth program. Aspects that can be improved include facilitating the management and sharing of historical physiological data, providing additional assessments of cognitive and/or mental status, supporting self-education, and enabling more comprehensive health status tracking. We conclude this paper by discussing the implications of our results to the improvement of community-based telehealth programs for low-income, vulnerable aging populations.