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Digital ageing in Europe: a comparative analysis of Italian, Finnish and Swedish national policies on eHealth
Faculty of Humanities and Social Sciences, Department of Social Sciences and Philosophy, University of Jyväskylä, Jyväskylä, Finland.
Faculty of Political and Social Sciences, Università Cattolica Del Sacro Cuore, Milan, Italy.
Umeå University, Faculty of Social Sciences, Department of Sociology.ORCID iD: 0000-0001-8912-0858
Faculty of Social Sciences, University of Lapland, Rovaniemi, Finland.
2023 (English)In: Ageing & Society, ISSN 0144-686X, E-ISSN 1469-1779, Vol. 43, no 4, p. 835-856Article in journal (Refereed) Published
Abstract [en]

Ageing Europeans are today healthier than previous generations and often manage to live independently up to a high age. The proportion of people 80 years of age and older has increased significantly, and with high age the risk of multi-illness and dementia increases. Strong urbanisation processes have changed the demographic structure in rural areas, and young women and men have migrated towards the urban areas to study and work, while older persons have remained behind. This demographic challenge of increasing numbers of persons older than 80 years with care needs living in remote rural areas has become a major European social problem. In tackling this dilemma, many European countries have high expectations for eHealth, digitalisation and welfare technology. In this comparative study of policy debates in Italy, Finland and Sweden, we analyse how - between 2009 and 2019 - the issues of eHealth have been articulated in national and regional policies of the three countries with deep differences in terms of digitalisation and health systems, but with similar ageing populations. We identify in the documents three core topics - the role of technology, the rural issue and responsibility for care. These topics are treated in the documents with differences and similarities between the three countries. Beyond the differences and similarities, the documents reveal both a certain techno-enthusiasm about the role of eHealth in the life of the older adults as well as a limited understanding of the complexity (relationally as well as spatially) of the digital landscape of caring for older adults.

Place, publisher, year, edition, pages
Cambridge University Press, 2023. Vol. 43, no 4, p. 835-856
Keywords [en]
ageing policies, digital landscape of care, digitalisation, eHealth, qualitative comparison
National Category
Sociology (excluding Social Work, Social Psychology and Social Anthropology) Gerontology, specialising in Medical and Health Sciences
Identifiers
URN: urn:nbn:se:umu:diva-186241DOI: 10.1017/S0144686X21000945ISI: 000742537900001Scopus ID: 2-s2.0-85109478722OAI: oai:DiVA.org:umu-186241DiVA, id: diva2:1581030
Available from: 2021-07-19 Created: 2021-07-19 Last updated: 2023-07-12Bibliographically approved

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Kvist, Elin

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