barriers and facilitators of acceptance of mobile applications regarding health-related issues in the elderly: a systematic review

Background: as technology swiftly advances, especially with the increased use of smartphones and the internet, mobile health (mhealth) emerges as a valuable tool for reducing health problems and improving healthcare services, particularly for the high-risk elderly population. this systematic review was conducted to identify resources and existing information related to factors that influence the acceptance of health-based mobile applications among the elderly, referring to the social-ecological model. methods: studies were searched until october 2023 through electronic databases, including web of science, scopus, pubmed, and embase. english language studies that had the elderly as their research population and were conducted cross-sectionally were included in the study. the intended studies were categorized through a framework called the ecological model. the critical appraisal checklist for cross-sectional studies (axis) tool was used to assess the quality of the articles. in total, twelve studies met the inclusion criteria and were finally chosen to be part of this analysis. results: the results revealed that perceived usefulness and ease of understanding were the most common facilitators, and privacy risk was the most common barrier at the intrapersonal level. at the interpersonal and organizational levels, social influence and facilitating conditions were the most influential factors in the acceptance of these applications in the facilitator section, and technical problems were the most influential in the barriers section. access to services was an important factor that influenced health-based mobile applications for the elderly at the community level. eight articles were of high quality using the axis tool. conclusion: the findings from this review are anticipated to guide health policy implementation centers practically, aiding in creating and executing effective policies to encourage the adoption of health-oriented mobile applications from a broad social-ecological viewpoint.