- Title
- Factors influencing the adoption of mobile health monitoring and care systems by the elderly living at home in South Africa: a case of Buffalo City Metropolitan Municipality.
- Creator
- Fotoyi, Yolande Odwa
- Subject
- Medical informatics
- Subject
- Wireless communication systems in medical care
- Date
- 2021-09
- Type
- Master's/ theses
- Type
- text
- Identifier
- http://hdl.handle.net/10353/20406
- Identifier
- vital:45662
- Description
- The gradual increase of elderly people around the globe necessitates intensive dialogue amongst government, the healthcare sector and elderly communities as per MPAA 2002 resolutions. Literature identifies technology as the enabler to drive the facilitation of improved living conditions beginning with an affordable, accessible and integrated health information system (HIS). The attainment of a better quality of care to meet the elderly’s needs requires the re-engineering of current modalities. The diverse nature of South Africa is more suited to a people-based rather than a process-centric approach currently in existence. Access barriers, affordability, the digital divide, lack of government buy-in, and fragmented HIS are considered major impediments to adoption of mobile monitoring and care systems (MMCs) for the elderly’s healthcare. Given the complications brought about by the Covid-19 pandemic, the adoption of MMCs cannot be more pronounced. However, despite available literature regarding elderly issues in both developed and developing countries, the elderly plight has still not been considered a national priority. The main purpose of this research was to investigate why elderly people do not adopt MMCs to improve their quality of life, with MMC technologies as a general area of research. The main objective of the study was to develop critical success factors to improve the adoption of MMCs by the elderly living at home. This would potentially alleviate the burden on healthcare resources and also improve the elderly’s quality of life. Primary data collection took place from 21 February to 28 February 2020 in Buffalo City Metropolitan Municipality. Semi-structured interviews were conducted with 15 participants comprising one male and 14 females who represented the elderly Black, Coloured, Indian and White people. This qualitative research tool and purposive sampling method were chosen in order to fully capture the participants’ experiences in the home environment, which excluded those living in frail care or step-down facilities or state institutions. Despite the sample size being small and not being generalizable, it delivered rich information which provided a deeper understanding and fresh insights into the landscape of the elderly and their healthcare needs. The interviews were recorded, transcribed and analysed thematically. The study found that elderly communities are not entirely averse to adoption of MMCs but challenges like affordability and chronic shortage of technical skills prove to be impediments to adoption of MMCs for the elderly’s healthcare. The lack of standardisation and data governance pertaining to data sharing in HISs also serve to exacerbate the matter. The study, therefore, recommends collaborative engagements amongst government, business and the elderly to facilitate the availability of affordable and accessible ICT infrastructure for the elderly communities. Improved adoption of MMCs carry the potential benefit which emanates from the assumption of a pro-active role by the elderly and optimising available MMCs thus reducing strain and freeing-up healthcare workers to concentrate on core duties. The onus thus falls on the healthcare sector to revise the available strategies which seek to enhance the quality of life of the elderly people living in the home environment.
- Description
- Thesis (MCom) (Information Systems) -- University of Fort Hare, 2021.
- Format
- computer
- Format
- online resource
- Format
- application/pdf
- Format
- 1 online resource (146 pages)
- Format
- Publisher
- University
- Publisher
- Faculty of Management and Commerce
- Language
- English
- Rights
- University of Fort Hare
- Rights
- All Rights Reserved
- Rights
- Open Access
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UFH Department of Information Systems
| Thumbnail | File | Description | Size | Format | |||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| View Details Download | SOURCE1 | Fotoyi_201414065_Information Systems.pdf | 2 MB | Adobe Acrobat PDF | View Details Download |