Designing digital mental health interventions for older adults: a scoping review
File(s)
Published version
Author(s)
Rajappan, Dakshayani
Yin, Ruoyu
Martinengo, Laura
Tudor Car, Lorainne
Type
Journal Article
Abstract
This scoping review aimed to explore the technical and health content-related features that digital mental health interventions (DMHIs) for older adults should entail to facilitate their future design, development, and implementation. We included peer-reviewed expert opinion papers, experimental studies and their protocols on digital mental health interventions for older adults. We searched PubMed, Embase, PsycINFO, Web of Science and Google Scholar. A total of 98 studies were included, comprising 81 experimental studies and 17 expert opinion papers. The DMHIs reported in experimental studies and their protocols included mobile apps, online platforms, and videoconferencing tools, targeting depression, anxiety and grief. However, experts highlighted three main challenges faced by older adults: functional limitations, limited digital literacy, and restricted access to technology. This review provides recommendations for the development of future DMHIs, including co-design with older adults, content adaptation, gamification, stakeholder involvement, and privacy and data security. Further research is needed to evaluate these recommendations for real-world settings.
Date Issued
2026-03-30
Date Acceptance
2026-02-26
Citation
npj Digital Medicine, 2026, 9
ISSN
2398-6352
Publisher
Nature Portfolio
Journal / Book Title
npj Digital Medicine
Volume
9
Copyright Statement
© The Author(s) 2026. This article is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License, which permits use, sharing, adaptation, distribution and reproduction in any medium or format, as long as you give appropriate credit to the original author(s) and the source, provide a link to the Creative Commons licence, and indicate if changes were made. The images or other third party material in this article are included in the article’s Creative Commons licence, unless indicated otherwise in a credit line to the material. If material is not included in the article’s Creative Commons licence and your intended use is not permitted by statutory regulation or exceeds the permitted use, you will need to obtain permission directly from the copyright holder. To view a copy of this licence, visit http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/.
License URL
Identifier
10.1038/s41746-026-02523-7
Publication Status
Published
Article Number
ARTN 264
Date Publish Online
2026-03-13