Is it all about trust? Elderly people’s propensity to digital technology in healthcare: a case study from Italy

Digital technologies for healthcare have found great development and diffusion in the pandemic period, especially as a solution to reach patients with chronic conditions, mostly elderly and residing in remote areas. However, in order to be effective, trust in these technologies is a central component of the interaction. Using data from a survey on the propensity to use digital technologies of elderly people residing in remote areas in four regions of Italy, the present study tests through of latent class model for polytomous outcome what is the probability that they trust health technology tools. The results show that the majority of the sample has trust in digital technologies, even if they do not use them directly. The factors influencing these probabilities turn out to be age and education level. This evidence may be considered useful in forming new digital health policies, especially in view of the factors that influence distrust of digital tools in healthcare.