News Feature | September 19, 2014

Baby Boomers Ready For Health IT

Katie Wike

By Katie Wike, contributing writer

Health IT Accepted By Baby Boomers

Baby boomers make up the largest portion of the U.S. population and a new survey shows they are willing to learn about technology and use HIT.

A survey conducted by researchers from Saint Louis University, Northern Arizona University, and George Mason University – recently published in the Journal of Medical Internet Research – indicates baby boomers might be more ready for health technology than expected.

“As they age, baby boomers (born 1946-1964) will have increasing medical needs and are likely to place large demand on health care resources,” explain researchers. “Consumer health technologies may help stem rising health care needs and costs by improving provider-to-patient communication, health monitoring, and information access and enabling self-care.”

MobiHealth News reports around 60 percent of this age group have already been diagnosed with at least one chronic medical condition. Health IT Outcomes reported late last year that report from Accenture found internet use rates among seniors had tripled between 2000 and 2012. “Seniors want to do more than access general healthcare information online. They want online access to their personal health information, and many want to research and evaluate health insurance options, accessing their information once enrolled,” wrote Accenture.

Researchers from the JMIR study concluded, “Based on our analysis, most baby boomers are ready to adopt some types of consumer health technology (telephone voice calls, websites, and email). They were equally split on being ready to adopt call centers, video conferencing, and texting for health purposes. Baby boomers seem reluctant to adopt podcasting, kiosks, smartphone apps, blogs, and wikis.”

“Baby boomers seem less ready to adopt some consumer health technologies than their younger counterparts, but are more ready to adopt than their elders. Differences between baby boomers and other consumers seem related to awareness, knowledge of how to use the technology, and the appropriateness and enjoyment of using technology for consumer health-related purposes.”