Older adults’ attitudes towards using technologies for communication, entertainment, health and productivity: a cross-sectional study

Hao et al. BMC Public Health (2025) 25:3800 https://doi.org/10.1186/s12889-025-24847-x BMC Public Health Open Access RESEARCH Older adults’ attitudes towards using technologies for communication, entertainment, health and productivity: a cross-sectional study Yunrui Hao 1, Ler Ting Koh1, Chong Han Peh2†, Dillon Christopher YJ Teo2†, Keerthana Thangaraja2†, Ngan Phoon Fong1,2 and Cynthia Chen1,2,3* Abstract Background Technology is essential for advancing healthcare services by enhancing information availability and access. This is especially relevant to Singapore's rapidly ageing population. However, despite widespread smartphone ownership, usage of health-related applications remains low among older Singaporeans. Therefore, this study sought to investigate and understand key factors influencing older adults’ attitudes towards technology, namely in health, communication, productivity, and entertainment. Methods This cross-sectional study was conducted in Singapore through a self-administered face-to-face questionnaire. Data were collected from 380 adults aged 40 and above regarding attitudes towards different technologies in four domains: health, communication, productivity, and entertainment in July 2023. Participants' responses were then re-coded as having a positive or negative attitude, and chi-square tests were used to analyse across categorical variables. Multivariable logistic regression examined the association between attitude and age groups, adjusting for confounders. Results Overall, respondents exhibited positive attitudes toward health technology (69.5%), communication (94.5%), entertainment (85.8%), and productivity (79.7%). Participants aged 75 and above exhibited lower positive attitudes, although they demonstrated notable positivity toward communication (74.6%) and entertainment (56.7%), as opposed to health (35.8%) and productivity (38.8%). Younger age groups (40–54 years) exhibited higher odds of positive attitude toward health technology (OR 7.69, 95% CI: 2.42–25.5), similarly for those with higher education (OR 6.0, 95% CI: 2.64–14.1) and larger families (OR 4.77, 95% CI: 1.54–17.2) after multivariable adjustment. Notably, positive attitudes toward health technology were consistently lower across all age groups compared to other domains. Within health technology, younger adults were more inclined to use medical services and health apps compared to older † Chong Han Peh, Dillon Christopher YJ Teo and Keerthana Thangaraja contributed equally to this work. *Correspondence: Cynthia Chen Full list of author information is available at the end of the article © The Author(s) 2025. 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To view a copy of this licence, visit http://creati vecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-nd/4.0/. Hao et al. BMC Public Health (2025) 25:3800 Page 2 of 13 adults. Although younger adults utilised technology more for time-saving purposes (53% vs. 18%, P < 0.001), no age differences were observed for health monitoring (44% vs. 37%, P = 0.228). Conclusion More older Singaporeans were less positive towards health technology compared to technologies for communication, productivity, and entertainment. Increasing age remains the predominant variable, even after adjusting for confounders. Efforts to improve accessibility, usability, and perceived usefulness of health technologies may help enhance adoption among older adults. Keywords Health technology adoption, Older adults, Attitude to health, Digital health Background Singapore has one of the most rapidly ageing populations in Asia, with 17% of residents aged 65 and above [1]. The ageing population’s chronic health issues and higher levels of disability escalate the financial demands of the healthcare system [2]. With the elderly population projected to increase by 33% by 2050 [1], the impact on future healthcare policies will be substantial. Technology plays an important role in advancing healthcare services by improving access to information, medical services, and mobility [3]. The government has recognised the inevitable shift towards digital health technologies, catalysed by the COVID-19 pandemic [4]. To empower Singaporeans to take greater ownership of their health, technology has been increasingly integrated into healthcare [5]. For example, in 2015, HealthHub was launched to streamline medical appointments and access to personal medical records, while Healthy365 was introduced in 2021, to consolidate active lifestyle programmes [6]. The Singapore Ministry of Health has also endorses teleconsultations as a key feature of healthcare delivery, complementing traditional face-to-face consultations [4]. Since the pandemic, there has been a rise in telemedicine utilisation, demonstrating effectiveness in remote medical consultations [7]. In recent years, technology has been rapidly adopted by older Singaporeans, as reflected by the growth of smartphone ownership amongst older adults yearly from 28% in 2017 to 48% in 2021 [8, 9]. Despite this progresss, there is a marked difference in how technology is used: older adults tend to use technology for social media and leisure rather than health [8, 10]. The attitudes towards new technology should be further explored to determine key reasons for these differences among older adults. This is in line with the Technology Acceptance Model, which postulates that the perception of factors such as usefulness and ease of use of a technology influence users’ adoption intention (Fig. 3) [11]. Hence, the perception and attitudes towards technology should be examined. Older adults in Singapore are found to still prefer face-toface interactions with healthcare professionals and often need to experience healthcare-related technology as easy to use and useful before they can accept it in their daily lives [12]. While there are numerous studies examining attitudes towards digital health technologies, most have been conducted in the West. Our study contributes by focusing on associations that are not typically addressed in an Asian setting, while delving into how these attitudes trans (...truncated)