"The support needs to be part of the system”: designing inclusive eHealth applications for older adults with low eHealth literacy

Abstract

In the project ‘Got-IT’ an online toolkit to assist the design of inclusive eHealth solutions targeting the promotion of healthy lifestyles among older adults (65+) with low eHealth literacy was developed. The project consortium has used participatory citizen science as an approach to actively engage with the relevant stakeholders, including older adults with low eHealth literacy, eHealth developers, and secondary end users like eHealth professionals. We applied three different research designs all centered on the active engagement of the different stakeholders, using the design of an eHealth app to ground the investigations. The outcomes of the Got-IT project align not only with the first objective of the AAL Programme (‘better quality of life for older adults and their networks, by empowering the citizens to take care of their own health’) but are also central components of citizen science as a whole, by actively engaging the different target groups at various levels of our research process.