mHealth Adoption by the Older Adults: A Structured Literature Review

Background: A structured review on mHealth adoption among older adults is needed understand and synthesize existing evidence on the factors influencing their engagement with various mHealth technologies. Such a review helps policymakers, healthcare providers, and technology designers in developing age-friendly mobile health interventions that enhance older adults’ well-being and healthcare access. Thus, this review aims to synthesise and provide a detailed summary of older adults’ mHealth engagement and adoption literature from a business perspective. Methods: This study adopts the systematic procedure and rationale for the systematic literature review (SPAR-4-SLR) protocol to achieve the study’s objective. Nineteen articles from the Scopus and Web of Science databases related to mHealth engagement and adoption by older adults are included in this study. Results: The findings revealed that the majority of the studies are atheoretical. The Unified Theory of Acceptance and Use of Technology is used most in this domain. The review findings also reveal a complex interplay of technological, psychological, and social factors influencing adoption. It has also been found that quantitative methods have frequently been used to examine the adoption of mHealth among older adults. Conclusion: The study concludes with a constructive discussion of the existing theoretical, methodological, and contextual gaps in mHealth engagement and adoption literature.