Usage of digital health among elderly patients undergoing transcatheter aortic valve implantation

Patients with aortic stenosis ≥ 75 years of age are often in need of transcatheter aortic valve implantation as treatment. After acceptance the patients are offered information about the procedure provided through digital health technology. How elderly patients with aortic stenosis experience using digital health technology have not been shown in previous research.

To explore and describe experiences in usage of digital technology among elderly patients with aortic stenosis who have undergone transcatheter aortic valve implantation to identify facilitators and barriers related to digital health readiness.

An explorative approach with a deductive design using the concept of digital health readiness as theory. Nineteen semi-structured interviews were conducted at one university hospital in Norway, from August 2024 to January 2025, analysed with qualitative content analysis.

Facilitators and barriers were presented in categories related to the five domains within digital health readiness. For digital access, the facilitator were daily digital use, and the barrier were malfunctioning systems. Ability and confidence in usage of digital technology were facilitators, while barriers were unfamiliarity with advanced digital technology. For digital literacy, facilitators were finding authentic digital information, while barriers were lacking user-friendliness in digital health services. Facilitators of digital health literacy were finding relevant and trustworthy digital health information and barriers were low digital health literacy. For learnability, facilitators were experiencing motivation, while barriers were decreased engagement and lack of training in usage of digital technology.

This study provides insight of facilitators and barriers in use of digital technology among elderly patients with aortic stenosis undergoing transcatheter aortic valve implantation, and how this affects their use of digital health services. For clinical practise and further research it should be more focus on user-friendly systems to increase digital usage among elderly patients and user-involvement in development of digital health services. A systematic assessment of digital health readiness conducted by health care professionals in clinical practice may help identify elderly patients with low levels of digital health readiness, thereby enabling the delivery of personalized health information.