Department of Information Engineering and Computer Science, University of Trento, Trento 38123, Italy.
Department of Electronics and Informatics, Universidad Católica "Nuestra Señora de la Asunción", Asunción, Tte. Lidio Cantaluppi y Guillermo Molinas, Paraguay.
J Healthc Eng. 2020 Jul 12;2020:2036842. doi: 10.1155/2020/2036842. eCollection 2020.
This review studies technology-supported interventions to help older adults, living in situations of reduced mobility, overcome loneliness, and social isolation. The focus is on long-distance interactions, investigating the (i) challenges addressed and strategies applied; (ii) technology used in interventions; and (iii) social interactions enabled.
We conducted a search on Elsevier's Scopus database for related work published until January 2020, focusing on (i) intervention studies supported mainly by technology-mediated communication, (ii) aiming at supported virtual social interactions between people, and (iii) evaluating the impact of loneliness or social isolation.
Of the 1178 papers screened, 25 met the inclusion criteria. Computer and Internet training was the dominant strategy, allowing access to communication technologies, while in recent years, we see more studies aiming to provide simple, easy-to-use technology. The technology used was mostly off-the-shelf, with fewer solutions tailored to older adults. Social interactions targeted mainly friends and family, and most interventions focused on more than one group of people. . All interventions reported positive results, suggesting feasibility. However, more research is needed on the topic (especially randomized controlled trials), as evidenced by the low number of interventions found. We recommend more rigorous methods, addressing human factors and reporting technology usage in future research.
本综述研究了技术支持的干预措施，以帮助行动不便的老年人克服孤独和社会隔离。重点是远程互动，调查了（i）解决的挑战和应用的策略；（ii）干预措施中使用的技术；和（iii）实现的社会互动。
我们在爱思唯尔的 Scopus 数据库上进行了搜索，查找截至 2020 年 1 月发表的相关工作，重点关注（i）主要由技术介导的通信支持的干预研究，（ii）旨在支持人与人之间的虚拟社交互动，和（iii）评估孤独或社会隔离的影响。
在筛选的 1178 篇论文中，有 25 篇符合纳入标准。计算机和互联网培训是占主导地位的策略，使人们能够使用通信技术，而近年来，我们看到越来越多的研究旨在提供简单易用的技术。使用的技术大多是现成的，针对老年人的定制解决方案较少。社交互动主要针对朋友和家人，大多数干预措施都集中在不止一组人群上。所有的干预措施都报告了积极的结果，表明其可行性。然而，正如所发现的干预措施数量较少所表明的那样，该主题需要更多的研究（特别是随机对照试验）。我们建议在未来的研究中采用更严格的方法，解决人为因素和报告技术使用情况。
