Abstract
India is moving towards a health crisis, with a rapidly increasing population of older adults who have to deal with chronic health issues and declining family support. Remote health monitoring technologies offer opportunities for improved healthcare management; however, existing design guidelines often fail to address the cultural realities of Indian senior citizens. In this study, we identified six critical interaction areas for remote cardiac health monitoring, including self-monitoring, emergency response, and assistance-seeking patterns. Targeted cultural probes were designed for each area to evoke natural behaviours from 27 participants, aged 59-86, across diverse living situations. This participatory approach revealed that elderly dependency status was the most significant contextual factor in shaping digital health engagement. We also highlight the role of information presentation modalities and nature of medical equipment in shaping this engagement. These findings demonstrate how participatory methods can reveal culturally-specific barriers to health equity, challenging one-size-fits-all design approaches.
Keywords
Design for Health, Participatory Practices, Inclusive Design, Design for Research
DOI
https://doi.org/10.21606/drs.2026.1517
Citation
Sharma, R., and Johry, A. (2026) Understanding Digital Health Engagement Among Older Adults in India: A Cultural Probe Based Study, in Simeone, L., Gray, C. M., Verhoeven, A., de Götzen, A., Bakırlıoğlu, Y., Zohar, H., Stead, M., and Buwert, P. (eds.), DRS2026: Edinburgh, 8–12 June, Edinburgh, United Kingdom. https://doi.org/10.21606/drs.2026.1517
Creative Commons License
This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial 4.0 International License
Included in
Understanding Digital Health Engagement Among Older Adults in India: A Cultural Probe Based Study
India is moving towards a health crisis, with a rapidly increasing population of older adults who have to deal with chronic health issues and declining family support. Remote health monitoring technologies offer opportunities for improved healthcare management; however, existing design guidelines often fail to address the cultural realities of Indian senior citizens. In this study, we identified six critical interaction areas for remote cardiac health monitoring, including self-monitoring, emergency response, and assistance-seeking patterns. Targeted cultural probes were designed for each area to evoke natural behaviours from 27 participants, aged 59-86, across diverse living situations. This participatory approach revealed that elderly dependency status was the most significant contextual factor in shaping digital health engagement. We also highlight the role of information presentation modalities and nature of medical equipment in shaping this engagement. These findings demonstrate how participatory methods can reveal culturally-specific barriers to health equity, challenging one-size-fits-all design approaches.