A new article has been published: “Experiences and Expectations of Immigrant and Nonimmigrant Older Adults Regarding eHealth Services: Qualitative Interview Study"
Our researchers, doctoral researcher Maedeh Ghorbanian Zolbin and senior university lecturer Sari Kujala, in collaborating with Isto Huvila from Uppsala University, published an article based on a qualitative study on immigrant and nonimmigrant older adults residing in Finland.
The study identifies the challenges, emotional responses and expectations of older adults from different backgrounds regarding eHealth services. For example, the result of the study shows that the most obvious challenges for older immigrants were related to their values and preferences (as they mostly valued in-person visits with healthcare professionals), and insufficient digital skills, while nonimmigrant older adults experienced more usability issues because of being more familiar with the services.
In addition, the study shows the links between the identified challenges, emotions and expectations with older adults’ basic psychological needs for autonomy, competence and relatedness introduced in the self-determination theory.
"To support older adults’ use of eHealth services their needs should be identified and considered from design to the implementation of eHealth services, and they should receive proper support services tailored to their culture. For example, the result of this study suggests that unified eHealth services that facilitate communication with healthcare providers could support older adults' use of such services." Maedeh Ghorbanian Zolbin.
Read the article here (link outside of this page).
Text: Maedeh Ghorbanian Zolbin // Aalto University
Show other posts from this blog
Students enjoyed an educational and fun visit to Aalto University
Maedeh Ghorbanian Zolbin hosted a group of students and organized a workshop for focused on designing digital health services.
A new article has been published: “Digital inclusion among older adults: Identifying potential solutions"
Toward an inclusive society, it is essential to identify solutions that support everyone’s technology use, particularly vulnerable people.
Two articles by our research group were published at the 2025 Medical Informatics Europe (MIE) conference
Two articles by our research group were published at the 2025 MIE conference. Articles related to developing eHealth services.