Digital Inclusion Pathways and Influencing Factors Among Older Adults in Outpatient Settings: A Grounded Theory Study

作者：Yulu Chen, Qianyu Yin, Tingting Zhou, S Gu, Liling Xie, Mingzhao Xiao, L. Wang, Qinghua Zhao · 发表于：Clinical Interventions in Aging · 年份：2025 · DOI：10.2147/cia.s518045 · 被引用次数：5 · 研究领域：Technology Use by Older Adults、Mobile Health and mHealth Applications、Telemedicine and Telehealth Implementation

Purpose: Smart healthcare services in hospitals play a critical role in enhancing efficiency and quality. However, older adults often face varying degrees of challenges in accessing, adapting to, and using these technologies because of the effects of the Silver Digital Divide, including factors such as physical functioning, smart device access, and digital health literacy. This study aims to investigate the experiences, attitudes, and perceptions of older adults in outpatient regarding smart healthcare service in order to develop an explanatory digital inclusion pathway and construct a comprehensive path model for older adults. Patients and Methods: We conducted semi-structured interviews with 27 older adults in outpatients in Chongqing, China to understand their experiences, attitudes, and perceptions of attending smart healthcare services through theoretical sampling. Interviews were recorded, transcribed, and translated to English; content was analyzed based on grounded theory to examine the role of each influencing factor in relation to digital inclusion and modeling digital inclusion pathways. The stimuli-organism-response theoretical framework was used to guide path model construction. Results: Interview data of 27 older adults in outpatient settings were analyzed by exploratory interpretation, obtaining 79 initial concepts, 22 subcategories, seven main categories, and three dimensions, and constructing a theoretical model of the path of digital inclusion of older adult...