Future patient care: tele-empowerment

We explored the attitudes and responses of older people to telecare and home-based technologies. The perceptions of a small group of subjects who had no knowledge or experience of the use of telehealth equipment were compared with the experiences of a second small group who had used a video-link in a remote consultation with their general practitioner Data were collected by engaging subjects in a semistructured interview in their own home. A questionnaire, which was developed following the analysis of the interview data, was also distributed to three client groups in Scotland. These groups were day hospital patients, residents of local authority sheltered housing schemes and residents of a private housing association. One hundred and ninety-nine questionnaires were returned (a 42% response rate), all from people aged 60 years and over. Analysis of the questionnaires suggested that the main demographic factors associated with positive attitudes to telecare were age, home ownership, dwelling type (sheltered housing or not) and household composition. The results suggest that an appropriate nurse-led telehealth service, which facilitates trust between clients, providers and the technology, could be the mechanism by which to encourage people to accept and use home-based systems.