Geriatrics and Ageing

mHealth for Ageing

Mobile health (mHealth) is an innovative and communication technology which came into existence in the recent years. It can play a significant role in improving health behaviours among an elderly population. According to World Health Organization (WHO) reports, about 60% of people’s quality of life and health depends on their personal behaviour and lifestyle; they have also associated 53% of the fatality causes with lifestyle and health behaviours; therefore, elderly individuals who adopt health improving lifestyle behaviour would experience a healthy old age. mHealth provides medical services using the capabilities of mobile technology for reporting health information, monitoring clinical signs and enabling direct supervision and instruction. The mHealth technology can help change and develop health behaviours like increased consumption of fruits and vegetables, stress management, reduced consumption of salt and improved quality of diet and sleep and improve self-efficacy in elderly individuals with chronic disease such as cognitive disorders and Alzheimer’s, heart disease and susceptibility to metabolic risk and diabetes through text messages, voice messages, voice calls and game-based mobile applications. The global Telehealth Market is anticipated to over reach more than US$ 9.35 Billion by the year 2022 at a CAGR of 27.5%.