Digital Technologies in Health Care Practices Among Senior Citizens of Russian Megacities

Digitalization of health care (d-Health) has become a significant trend of recent decades, manifesting itself in a variety of practices. It received additional impetus because of the global COVID-19 pandemic. Since d-Health aims to make healthcare more accessible, very often the elderly are considered the main beneficiaries of it. At the same time the 60+ group is seen as the most vulnerable in the face of digital divide. But today there is a lack of data highlighting real ways to apply innovations for health care among older adults. Based on the results of empirical studies we characterize the peculiarities of involving elderly citizens in digital healthcare practices like telemedicine, digital self-tracking, appeal to the Internet sources to seek medical information etc. Also, we raise the question if this group is really excluded from the process of d-Health and propose some sociological explanation of the current situation.

The report contains the results of two empirical studies conducted in 2020-2022: 1) mix methods research including semi-structured interviews with residents of major Russian cities (n=90), as well as a telephone survey of St. Petersburg residents (n=861); 2) a telephone survey of Moscow and St. Petersburg residents (n=1200).

It was revealed that the first-order digital divide in Russian megacities has been overcome. But in the case of d-Health, it was age that turned out to be the main determinant of involvement in new practices. Using digital technologies for medical purposes is due not so much to availability of them but to the ideas inherent in the 60+ generation about acceptable and possible ways of taking care of health and trust in different sources of information. Thus, the issue of physical access to innovations in the field of healthcare is not a key one now.

Research is supported by Russian Science Foundation, grant#24-18-00261, https://rscf.ru/en|project/24-18-00261