The Journal of mHealth Vol 1 Issue 2 (Apr 2014) | Page 51

Using mHealth to Support Ageing Populations
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Only 1 in 8 (12%) of all respondents said they would use telecare,
dropping to only 7% of for over65s

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Less than 1 in 10 (8%) responded
that they would not use telecare

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80% admitted they weren’t sure
what telecare was

The results held across age brackets
with small variations amongst older
people – with 85% of over 65s saying
they weren’t sure what telecare was.
This was not markedly different from
the most aware group, 35-44 year olds,
where still 77% of respondents did not
know what telecare was.

RESISTANCE OR LACK OF
AWARENESS?
We then defined telecare for respondents, in plain English:
“Telecare is a system of monitors and
sensors which can include a basic alarm
service, able to respond 24/7, e.g. if
someone has a fall. It can include sensors such as motion or fall detectors
and fire and gas alarms that trigger
an alert to a response centre staffed
24 hours a day, 365 days a year. It can
include location devices that can find
someone, e.g. if someone with dementia wanders outside the home.”
We asked if, knowing what it was, they
would consider using it:
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79% said they would use it (so long
as it was affordable), with a third
(32%) saying they definitely would
and 47% saying they probably would
Only 1 in 8 said they would not
consider using it with only 5% (1 in
20) saying they definitely would not

So based on their existing knowledge,
only 12% of the population would
use telecare but when the term was
explained to them this shot up to 79%.

Surprisingly the youngest respondents
were least likely, though still very likely,
to consider using telecare – with 74%
of 18-24s saying they would consider
it. However, this is also likely to demonstrate that issues of ageing and poor
health are less likely to be preying on
the minds of younger respondents.
The group most likely to use it were,
in fact, the over 65 ̰