When Going Digital Becomes a Necessity: Ensuring Older Adults’ Needs for Information, Services, and Social Inclusion During COVID-19

TLDR

Older adults face higher mortality, poorer access to quality online information and services, and greater social isolation during COVID‑19, underscoring the need to establish support systems and digital infrastructure for current and future pandemics. Hybrid solutions that combine online and offline strategies are essential for including vulnerable populations. These hybrid solutions generally need no new inventions, but securing financial resources for rapid, coordinated implementation remains the greatest challenge.

Abstract

Older adults are in triple jeopardy during COVID-19: compared with younger people, older adults are (1) more likely to develop serious conditions and experience higher mortality; (2) less likely to obtain high quality information or services online; and (3) more likely to experience social isolation and loneliness. Hybrid solutions, coupling online and offline strategies, are invaluable in ensuring the inclusion of vulnerable populations. Most of these solutions require no new inventions. Finding the financial resources for a rapid, well-coordinated implementation is the biggest challenge. Setting up the requisite support systems and digital infrastructure is important for the present and future pandemics.