Avoiding God’s Waiting Room: Lessons from the Lived Experiences of Older People who Use Digital Technology to Support Physical Activity

Abstract

Background: Digital technologies provide new opportunities to promote, incentivise and support physical activity as an essential component of healthy ageing, but their potential is yet to be fully realised. There is mixed information about older people’s capacity to use digital technologies to support physical activity, and about how it can benefit them. Methods: This study focuses on older people who report some success in using digital technology to support physical activity. We conducted narrative interviews with 17 purposively sampled survey respondents aged 70+ who had reported using smartphones, tablets/computers or wearable/portable digital devices to support their physical activity. We sought to identify transferable lessons from their experiences and to explain how these experiences were shaped by contextual factors, including the COVID-19 pandemic. Data was analysed inductively and deductively. Results: Interviewees perceived digital technology as a facilitator and motivator for physical activity, describing multiple benefits. Many disparaged their technical skills yet they used technology creatively to access and enhance physical activity, driven by philosophies of active living which underpinned their refusal to “sit in God’s waiting room”. Most reported navigating challenges associated with ageing in a discriminatory society, compounded by COVID-19 impacts. We identified four ‘lessons’: 1. Embrace technology, 2. Find your thing, 3. Be adaptive and 4. Resist ‘being old’. Conclusions: Leveraging trusted social and health professional relationships to model and encourage technology-supported physical activity, and strengthening the value proposition of technology for older people 'with' older people, may encourage their use of digital technology to support physical activity.

Keywords

• technology
• physical activity
• older people
• successful ageing
• ageism