The ageing elderly population rate in Kerala is increasing unprecedentedly. Kerala is witnessing the drastic demographic transition than any other state in the country (Government of Kerala 2017). The 2011 census shows there are 4.2 million people above 60 years in Kerala (The Hindu, 2021). Although there are a few studies on the ageing population in India, studies on elderly population’s illness and outpatient service utilization compared to the non-elderly population in Kerala is limited (Mukherjee & Levesque, 2012; Johnson, 2010; Sanitha et al., 2019c). As per World Health Organisation (2022), each year 41 million people die from Non-Communicable Disease (NCD) and around 86% of these deaths occur in Lower Middle-Income Countries (LMICs) like India. Issues with NCDs are quite high among elderly population too. To achieve both UHC and sustainable development goal 3 that is good health and well-being by 2030, the government should plan and implement such schemes and policies which cater to the needs and aspirations of the elderly population. As the new media or digital technologies could be utilized for the effective implementation of health services, the familiarity of elderly people with the latest digital technology is a highly relevant unexplored topic (Rajan & Mishra, 2020). In this context this research tries to analyse digital interventions regarding NCD for elderly, identify the attitude towards e-health among elderly people in Kerala, evaluate the gap between digital health technologies and beneficiary access, health inequalities and universal Health coverage, and find out the factors contribute to the sustainability of digital health technologies in the public health care System by suing mixed method approach. The study in turn help to create an effective e-health framework to achieve universal health coverage by considering the elderly population also. Results of the study can be pointed out for the attention of policymakers for efficient utilization of the latest technologies in the healthcare sector to achieve sustainable development goals.
Department of Mass Communication, School of Arts, Humanities & Commerce, Coimbatore
Strong foundation in research, academic writing skills
Assistant Professor
School of Communication, Coimbatore