A Systematic Review of Randomized Controlled TrialsWith Information- and Communication-Technology-Based Intervention for the Elderly

BACKGROUND: According to data released by the Statistics Korea in 2017, Korea has entered an aging society, and is expected to become a post-aged society in 2025 because 20% of the total population will become the elderly. Various studies have been conducted to solve the problems of the elderly due to aging, and recently have been studied to solve the physical and cognitive problems of the elderly using Information & Communication Technology (ICT). But most domestic studies on ICT are case studies or single-group pretest experiments, and few randomized controlled trials exist. PURPOSE: The purpose of this study is to systematically review high-quality, randomized controlled trials in order to increase the level of evidence among international studies on ICT-based intervention in the elderly. DESIGN: This study is a systematic review of the randomized controlled trials using the Preferred Reporting Items for Systematic review and Meta-Analysis guideline. The criteria for selection of studies are 1) studies published online in international journals for about 10 years from 2009 to 2019, 2) studies on ICT-based interventions, 3) studies for the elderly, 4) randomized controlled trials. The criteria for exclusion of studies are 1) studies without specific intervention results, 2) studies not written in English, and 3) studies without full text. METHOD: The search of this study included studies registered in international databases for 10 years from June 2009 to June 2019. International databases were searched for study using Pubmed, CINAHL (EBSCOhost), PSYCINFO. The search term (ICT or "information technolog*" or "communication technolog*") AND (older or "older adult" or elderly or senior) AND (intervention or treatment or therapy or program or strateg*) was used. Studies collection and selection were carried out by authors separately. The review method first selected and reviewed the title and abstract of the studies collected from the database, and then finally selected studies that satisfy the selection criteria through the full text review. In case of disagreement between the authors about the reviewed studies, review of the studies and discussions resulted in agreement. RESULTS: In this study, a total of 322 studies were searched out of 329 articles except 7 duplicated studies. From 322 studies, 160 studies that did not meet the selection criteria were first removed from the title and abstract. 162 studies selected through the primary review were reselect