As more aspects of care management go digital, it becomes important for older adults with cognitive impairments to get assistance with these tools.
People living with dementia, and their caregivers, showed a stronger reliance on using the functionality of online patient portals, one recent study showed.
The study authors concluded that one way to improve dementia care is to increase the practice of shared-access or proxy accounts.
The benefit of a proxy account is that it allows someone else — a caregiver or family member — to send messages and make healthcare decisions, but many digital proxy accounts protect some of the patients’ personal information.
“Results highlight the need to better support all patients through consumer-oriented health information technologies,” study authors wrote. “Persons with dementia have especially complex health needs and less ability to perform electronic health management tasks than those without.”
Although the use of proxy accounts was three times greater among people being treated for dementia than those without that diagnosis, overall, just 10% of dementia patients allowed someone to use such portals on their behalf, the study showed.
The study authors cite limitations, including the fact that dementia cases are underdiagnosed, and the study report is vague on how using online portals specifically improves care.
But other studies have corroborated the effectiveness of online care management systems and highlighted the need to use them to communicate care concerns.
Before the pandemic, half of older adults didn’t use web portals and their communication functions, with a large portion showing discomfort or disinterest in adopting the technology, McKnight’s Senior Living reported at the time.
Since then, the rise of telehealth and new digital healthcare tools has exploded, and senior living and other long-term care facilities have worked to improve tech literacy among residents. Now, older adults are viewing technology as a “high priority,” one recent report indicated.
