Introduction NHS England is committed to the expansion of virtual wards, necessitating patient engagement with home care technology. Literature suggests there is a technology adoption lag among older populations. We investigated if this lag was evident in geriatric virtual ward patients. Methods Data from three NHS trusts using a virtual care platform (March 2021–August 2023) were aggregated to assess differences in perceived ease of use, technology adoption style, and measures of adherence. All patients received the Telehealth Usability Questionnaire Ease of Use (EOU) subsection (higher scores indicate higher EOU). Patients completed surveys via tablet, wore monitoring devices, and took blood pressure readings. We dichotomised age (<75 vs. 75+) and used Fisher’s exact and Wilcoxon-Mann–Whitney tests. Results Of 857 patients, 36.9% were geriatric (mean age 81.5 years). The younger group (mean age 59.1 years) had 541 patients. Gender was evenly split between age groups (p = 0.62). Median EOU scores were 5.5 (geriatric) and 6.2 (younger) (p < 0.001). Geriatric patients were more likely to avoid or delay technology adoption (82% vs. 56% in younger patients, p < 0.001). Geriatric patients had higher adherence to the wearable device (median 95.3%) compared to younger patients (93.3%, p < 0.001). Blood pressure (median 81.6%) and survey adherence (median 83.3%) did not significantly differ between groups (p = 0.076, p = 0.0501). Conclusions Despite perceptions and literature suggesting older patients are less comfortable with technology, our findings demonstrate high engagement in virtual ward technology. While differences exist in technology adoption and EOU scores, geriatric patients exhibit equal or higher adherence to remote monitoring tasks. These results challenge stereotypes and underscore the importance of incorporating technology in geriatric care.

中文翻译：

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虚拟病房中有 2225 名老年患者;技术采用风格、易用性和对远程监控技术的坚持


简介 NHS England 致力于扩展虚拟病房，需要患者参与家庭护理技术。文献表明，老年人群的技术采用滞后。我们调查了这种滞后在老年虚拟病房患者中是否明显。方法：使用虚拟护理平台（2021 年 3 月至 2023 年 8 月）汇总来自三个 NHS 信托基金的数据，以评估感知易用性、技术采用风格和依从性衡量标准的差异。所有患者都收到了远程医疗可用性问卷易用性 （EOU） 小节（分数越高表示 EOU 越高）。患者通过平板电脑完成调查，佩戴监测设备并测量血压。我们二分年龄 （<75 vs. 75+） 并使用 Fisher 精确检验和 Wilcoxon-Mann-Whitney 检验。结果 在 857 例患者中，36.9% 为老年患者 （平均年龄 81.5 岁）。年轻组 （平均年龄 59.1 岁） 有 541 名患者。性别在年龄组之间平分秋色 （p = 0.62）。EOU 评分中位数为 5.5 （老年人） 和 6.2 （年轻） （p < 0.001）。老年患者更有可能避免或延迟技术采用 （82% vs. 年轻患者为 56%，p < 0.001）。与年轻患者 （93.3%，p < 0.001） 相比，老年患者对可穿戴设备的依从性更高 （中位数 95.3%）。血压 （中位数 81.6%） 和调查依从性 （中位数 83.3%） 在组间没有显著差异 （p = 0.076，p = 0.0501）。结论 尽管有看法和文献表明老年患者对技术不太满意，但我们的研究结果表明，人们对虚拟病房技术的参与度很高。虽然技术采用和 EOU 评分存在差异，但老年患者对远程监测任务的依从性相同或更高。 这些结果挑战了刻板印象，并强调了将技术纳入老年护理的重要性。