TITLE-
Systematic literate review on the Impact of Digital Intervention in Mental Wellbeing among Elderly Population In the UK.
Introduction
Digital Mental Health Interventions [DMHIs] are considered as paramount technology-based tools that improve mental well-being of people, specifically among elderly population. Web-based programs, mobile apps, video games, wearable devices, telepsychiatry and text messaging are determined as topmost examples of DMHIs. This proves to be appropriate in enhancing user experience and further generating data for therapist. Moreover, it is providing safer alternative for face-to-face treatment (Lattie, Stiles-Shields and Graham, 2022). However, there are certain criticisms associated with DMHIs underpinning significant issues such as challenges associated with transitioning research into practice, lack of placebo literacy in digital health and further research requires in this area due to lack of evidence (Borghouts et al, 2021). Elderly individuals [age 65 and above] within UK experiencing wider mental health complexities; depression and anxiety are major concerns in elderly population.
Despite mental health services older individuals facing barriers due to lack of specialist services, discrimination and ageism. Therefore, digital interventions are introduced for them in UK, nevertheless, influence of DMHIs are found to be positive and negative in wider literature (Gan et al, 2021). Therefore, current research proposal will analyse the influence of digital intervention on mental wellbeing of elderly population within UK. This systematic literature review is aiming to synthesize existing research on influence of DMHIs on mental wellbeing on elderly population within UK for informing public health policies and mental health services particularly for this age group.
Rationale
Problem statement
Significant problem persisting among elderly individuals in UK; despite high rates of mental health complexities among older individuals they are less likely to receive necessary support in comparison to younger individuals. This is leading to under diagnosis and inadequate treatment of mental health stigma and this further results in worsening their health outcomes (Kozelka et al, 2023). Larger population of elderly people in UK suffering from mental health concerns particularly, depression found to be common in them. Older individual often not recognise their mental health struggles leading to underreporting. Barriers in accessing specialised mental health services upholding the notion of introducing specialised services such as digital interventions. Previous literature revealed that systematic barriers to older adults’ adoption and engagement with DMHIs associates with low socioeconomic status, limited access to technology, anxiety while using technology, low levels of digital literacy, mistrust of technology, higher preference for face-to-face interaction and lack of accessibility features (Kozelka et al, 2023). Due to these complexities’ wider older population within UK is not able to gain the benefits of digital interventions. Previous findings emphasised on both positive and negative influence of digital interventions.
However, there is lack of focus emphasised on negative impacts and due to this no specific actions have been taken in this area. Digital literacy barriers, engagement and adherence, accessibility and cost, privacy concerns, social isolation issues, needs for additional support and perceived lack of relevance are essential loopholes that must be focused out (Smith et al, 2023). Moreover, positive influence such as high accessibility, accurate identification, anonymity, safe social distancing and lack of interruptions leading to develop positive influence on mental wellbeing of older people. By undertaking in-depth evaluation of both the positive and negative impacts research can inform for healthcare settings, care homes and public policy reforms for taking significant actions while adhering with evidence-based practices and consequently, implication of digital interventions would be done for older individuals in UK.
Aim and Objectives
Aim
The systematic review aims to analyse the influence of digital interventions on mental wellbeing of elderly population within UK.
Objectives
- To assess the prevalence of mental health complexities among elderly population across different socio-economic background in the UK.
- To identify varied types of digital interventions used for improving mental wellbeing of older individuals within UK.
- To evaluate the impacts of digital intervention on mental health of elderly population in the UK.
- To recommend evidence-based digital intervention strategies for improving mental wellbeing of older individuals.
Research question
- What is the prevalence of mental health complexities among elderly population across different socio-economic background within UK?
- What are different types of digital interventions used for improving mental health of older individuals in UK?
- What are the impacts of digital interventions on mental wellbeing of older individuals in the UK?
- What are evidence-based digital intervention strategies leading to enhance mental health of elderly population?
Rationale
Assessing the influence of digital intervention on mental wellbeing of older individuals proves to be crucial as it revealing about potential benefits such as improved access to mental health, decreased isolation and managing mental health complexities. Furthermore, potential complexities comprised with technology usage, privacy concern, accessibility and ineffective digital literacy can be witnessed (Moe-Byrne et al, 2022). Thus, rationale behind conducting current study aligns with informing development of tailored digital interventions for meeting the requirements of elderly population. As older population increasing in UK consequently, their prevalence related to mental health complexities increasing to greater extent. Hence, awareness regarding digital intervention can support in reaching this particular demographic. Older adults facing complexities in accessing traditional mental health services and digital platforms providing tailored interventions based on individual needs and preferences (McGorry et al, 2022). Hence, this lead to enhance the engagement of older adults. By analysing the benefits and areas of improvement reacted to digital intervention the research will inform practice within clinical setting and accordingly, healthcare professional would be able to implement interventional strategies for increasing the engagement of older adults.
Digital interventions emphasise on monitoring and early detection of mental health symptoms and subsequently, healthcare professional can take decision on time. Digital platforms fostering social interactions and combating loneliness which is proven as an important concern among older adults. The digital intervention stimulates cognitive functions within elderly population and further mitigate risk related to cognitive decline (Hopkin et al, 2025). However, there are important factors which requires to be consider while assessing the influence of digital intervention on older adults. The research rationale compound with analysing technology literacy, privacy concerns, social support integration and design considerations so that areas of improvement within implementation of digital interventions can be identified and appropriate strategies could be implemented.
The outcomes of research will lead to provide benefit to stakeholders such as patient [Older people], health and social care professionals, policy makers and healthcare organisations such as NHS and community settings (Cameron et al, 2025). By assessing the potential benefits of digital interventions awareness can be developed and implication of digital interventions could be encouraged. It leads to create consistent support of elderly population in the UK. Furthermore, by focusing on the barriers and areas of improvement research will inform practices in clinical setting and this results in enhancing practices within digital interventions. Furthermore, outcomes assist policymakers in relation to undertaking security measures that resolves security issues. In this manner, research would be able to contribute in enhancing practices within healthcare setting that significantly lead to enhance mental health outcomes among elderly population in UK (Cameron et al, 2025). Thus, rationale behind conducting current study complies with enhancing digital intervention practices for older people along with creating wider awareness so their mental health could be supported o greater extent.
Justification for chosen Methodology
There are limited studies undertaken in current research context and this comprehends with primary and secondary researches. Primary studies were undertaken through conducting surveys and interviews in which data was allocated from older individuals living in care homes. Whereas, secondary method aligns with reviewing books and journals, NHS websites and peer reviewed articles and accordingly, information was gathered and effectiveness of digital interventions was assessed (Susilawati et al, 2025). Each study has presented significant information related to research context; the emphasis of current research is on evaluating the influence of digital interventions on mental health of older people. Thus, specific population has been identified and thereby, study will conduct a systematic literature review and both primary and secondary articles would be approach for developing outcomes.
Systematic Literature Review [SLR] refers to structured process that associate with finding, evaluating and synthesising relevant research regarding specific research context. It is different from literature review as it is comprehensive and precise and focuses on answering specific clinical question (Marra and Nielsen, 2025). The output of systematic literature review will be qualitative in nature as it is easy to understand and further stakeholders would be able to analyse and understand the theoretic information. It has been evident from the research that systematic literature review is suitable in clinical area because it provides significant evidence regarding clinical topics and further supports healthcare professionals to undertake informed decision. Therefore, it is suitable in current research area; it enables researcher to focus on specific topic “digital intervention and its influence on mental wellbeing of older aged people in UK (Marra and Nielsen, 2025). The positive impacts would be analysed while assessing the loopholes so that corrective measures can be taken within clinical setting.
From the previous research it has been witnessed that digital intervention promotes personalised care and therefore, it influences mental wellbeing in positive manner. However, older individuals are not aware of these interventions and further due to lack of digital literacy they face issues (Tusquellas et al, 2025). The systematic literature review provides varied benefit to researcher that complies with minimising bias, comprehensive overview, transparency and reproducibility, informs about evidence-based practice, quality assessment, synthesis of diverse findings and supports in identification of research gap. Thus, based on these benefits it can be articulated that systematic literature review is appropriate in current research context and this supports in providing wider insights regarding research context. In this manner, researcher will be able to develop significant outcomes which will lead to inform practice and further provide varied benefits to stakeholders.
Methods
The systematic literature review will follow transparent, rigorous and replicable procedure for ensuring higher quality of the review while minimising biases. The methodology will be comprised with below mentioned following steps-
Eligibility criteria
In order to determine eligibility criteria for study inclusion and exclusion criteria will be followed by researcher.
Table 1-Inclusion and exclusion criteria
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Inclusion Criteria |
Exclusion Criteria |
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The above-mentioned inclusion and exclusion criteria will be followed by researcher and accordingly, eight peer-reviewed articles would be selected. This support in ensuring that quality studies are considered for conducting the research and further enhances efficiency of outcomes.
Search strategy
Key words
Key words are considered as that domains which are entered for searching about specific topic. By using appropriate search terms researcher can effectively select peer-reviewed articles which lead to provide quality information (Tusquellas et al, 2025). The researcher will focus on this area and accordingly, relevant key words will be used for identifying peer-reviewed articles. The key words which will be used are- “Digital interventions”, “mental wellbeing”, “elderly people”, “influence” and “UK”. This supports in identifying relevant articles that further supports in addressing research questions. Hence, there is no doubt in depicting that researcher will use relevant and appropriate key words and accordingly articles will be search.
Database
Table 2-Databases
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Databases |
Rationale |
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CINAHL |
CINAHL is an authoritative source for nursing and allied health literature that is providing comprehensive access to peer-reviewed journals and high-quality literature (Rogowski and Le Thi, 2025). Therefore, researcher will approach this database. |
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MEDLINE |
This is associated with wider medical literature that is maintained by National Library of Medicine. The researcher will be able to find peer reviewed articles on this database and therefore, this will be approach. |
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PubMed |
PubMed providing comprehensive collection of biomedical life science literature that provides broader overview regarding significant research topic (Rogowski and Le Thi, 2025). By approaching this database, researcher can collect wider authentic information related to research context. |
Study selection
The study selection will be done by following a detailed procedure complies with screening of titles and abstract of articles and accordingly, relevance with research topic will be identified. Full text of the selected articles would be reviewed and relevancy would be assessed. Furthermore, data extraction procedure will enable in identification of key variables associates with prevalence rates, intervention type, impacts of intervention and outcomes. Thus, after checking the relevancy of article information will be gathered and this would be used for developing final outcomes.
Data extraction and data analysis
Data extraction is considered as the process of systematically retrieving and collecting data from different sources, particularly in form of raw findings from the research articles (Susilo and Duchaine, 2025). In current study, relevant information from the articles will be extracted and this would be analysed while conducting systematic review; this lead to provide empirical evidence that supports in addressing research question. This process is significant for synthesising and analysing information for addressing research objectives. Data analysis is considered as the procedure of using logical techniques and framework for evaluating allocated information. There are two ways in which data could be analysed and those are thematic and statistical.
In current research context, researcher will be adopting thematic analysis for analysing the data as the information will be allocated in the form of theories. Thematic analysis is suitable for analysing qualitative information and therefore, researcher will prefer thematic analysis (Susilo and Duchaine, 2025). Consequently, different themes will be formulated related to prevalence of mental health in older adults, types of digital intervention, impacts of intervention on mental wellbeing and evidence-based strategies for enhancing digital mental health interventions. This supports in developing outcomes in effective manner and further it would be easy to understand.
Quality assessment
Quality assessment is crucial step in whole research procedure as it assures about reliability and validity of findings gathered from article. Further, it supports in minimising bias and further enable researcher to accurately interpret their findings while determining research conclusions. In order to undertake quality assessment of the studies the researcher will use Critical Appraisal Skills Programme [CASP] tool for critically evaluating studies. CASP refers to set of appraisal tool used for evaluating the efficiency of information presented in the article (Fàbregues and Guetterman, 2025). By using CASP tool researcher will be able to assess the quality of each article and consequently information would be involved in the study. Thus, this supports in selecting quality articles and consequently, effective outcomes would be developed that informs clinical practice.
Ethics
Ethics refers to the set of morals and values that needs to be perform while conducting research. Throughout the research procedure the author will maintain academic integrity and no plagiarism will be done. Furthermore, referencing will be done in appropriate manner and credit to the author would be given whose content will be used (Heirali et al, 2025). Furthermore, researcher will rephrase the content and consequently, information would be presented. Moreover, researcher will ensure that no harm would be develop to anyone and further outcomes of research will contribute in performing social good (Heirali et al, 2025). Researcher significantly focus on selecting those articles that are relevant to research area.
Thus, there is no doubt in stating that researcher will be focusing on performing mandatory ethics that are essential for enhancing the efficacy of outcomes. Performing ethics will result in gaining the trust of stakeholders and the implication of findings in practice could be done. Thus, in this manner researcher will perform mandatory ethics and subsequently, effective outcomes would be developed. There is no doubt in articulating that researcher will ensure keen focus on ethics and accordingly, outcomes would be developed. This results in enhancing the efficacy of outcomes and further contributes in determining evidence-based practices.
Gantt Chart
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Activities |
1 week |
2nd week |
3rd week |
4th week |
5th week |
6th week |
7th week |
8th week |
9th week |
10th week |
11th week |
12th week |
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Selecting topic |
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Developing aims and objectives |
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Undertaking literature review while selecting varied sources |
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Selecting appropriate research methods and providing justification |
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Collecting relevant data and making different themes |
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Analysing findings and presenting it in form of themes. |
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Concluding findings |
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Implementing recommendations |
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Feeback received |
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Making changes as per feedback |
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Submitting project. |
The above-mentioned timeline will be followed by researcher in order to complete the research activities and consequently, all practices will be performed. This supports in completing research on time and outcomes would be developed in set timeframe.
Expected outcomes
The systematic literature review is expected to provide comprehensive understanding regarding the prevalence of mental health complexities among elderly people. Furthermore, detailed analysis regarding types of digital mental health interventions will be undertaken. An evaluation of the impacts of digital interventions on mental wellbeing of older people would be analysed. Furthermore, evidence-based strategies that improves mental wellbeing of elderly population will be recommended. These outcomes will lead to inform clinical practice and accordingly, community settings and healthcare settings can develop awareness regarding digital mental health interventions for older people. Furthermore, outcomes will assist in assuring consistent support to elderly individuals who are suffering from mental health complexity.
Conclusion
The systematic review will lead to provide detailed and comprehensive review of existing research based on impacts of digital intervention on mental health of elderly population while emphasising on the prevalence of issues and effectiveness of the interventions. By considering latest evidences, the research will inform clinical practice so that consistent support to older individuals could be ensured. Moreover, evidence-based strategies will be recommended that supports in improving mental health of elderly population within UK.
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REFERENCES
Books and Journals
Borghouts, J., Eikey, E., Mark, G., De Leon, C., Schueller, S.M., Schneider, M., Stadnick, N., Zheng, K., Mukamel, D. and Sorkin, D.H., 2021. Barriers to and facilitators of user engagement with digital mental health interventions: systematic review. Journal of medical Internet research, 23(3), p.e24387.
Cameron, G., Mulvenna, M., Ennis, E., O'Neill, S., Bond, R., Cameron, D. and Bunting, A., 2025. Effectiveness of Digital Mental Health Interventions in the Workplace: Umbrella Review of Systematic Reviews. JMIR Mental Health, 12(1), p.e67785.
Fàbregues, S. and Guetterman, T.C., 2025. Mixed Methods Research Systematic Methodological Reviews—Benefits, Challenges, and Solutions. Journal of Mixed Methods Research, 19(1), pp.6-17.
Gan, D.Z., McGillivray, L., Han, J., Christensen, H. and Torok, M., 2021. Effect of engagement with digital interventions on mental health outcomes: a systematic review and meta-analysis. Frontiers in digital health, 3, p.764079.
Heirali, A., Heybati, K., Sereeyotin, J., Khan, F., Yarnell, C., Krewulak, K., Murthy, S., Burns, K.E., Fowler, R., Fiest, K. and Mehta, S., 2025. Eligibility Criteria of Randomized Clinical Trials in Critical Care Medicine. JAMA Network Open, 8(1), pp.e2454944-e2454944.
Hopkin, G., Branson, R., Campbell, P., Coole, H., Cooper, S., Edelmann, F., Gatera, G., Morgan, J. and Salmon, M., 2025. Building robust, proportionate, and timely approaches to regulation and evaluation of digital mental health technologies. The Lancet Digital Health, 7(1), pp.e89-e93.
Kozelka, E.E., Acquilano, S.C., Al-Abdulmunem, M., Guarino, S., Elwyn, G., Drake, R.E. and Carpenter-Song, E., 2023. Documenting the digital divide: identifying barriers to digital mental health access among people with serious mental illness in community settings. SSM-Mental Health, 4, p.100241.
Lattie, E.G., Stiles-Shields, C. and Graham, A.K., 2022. An overview of and recommendations for more accessible digital mental health services. Nature Reviews Psychology, 1(2), pp.87-100.
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McGorry, P.D., Mei, C., Chanen, A., Hodges, C., Alvarez‐Jimenez, M. and Killackey, E., 2022. Designing and scaling up integrated youth mental health care. World Psychiatry, 21(1), pp.61-76.
Moe-Byrne, T., Shepherd, J., Merecz-Kot, D., Sinokki, M., Naumanen, P., Hakkaart-van Roijen, L. and Van Der Feltz-Cornelis, C., 2022. Effectiveness of tailored digital health interventions for mental health at the workplace: A systematic review of randomised controlled trials. PLOS digital health, 1(10), p.e0000123.
Rogowski, S. and Le Thi, N., 2025. Critical theory, research methodology, and critical social work. In Handbook of Research Methods in Social Work (pp. 85-95). Edward Elgar Publishing.
Smith, K.A., Blease, C., Faurholt-Jepsen, M., Firth, J., Van Daele, T., Moreno, C., Carlbring, P., Ebner-Priemer, U.W., Koutsouleris, N., Riper, H. and Mouchabac, S., 2023. Digital mental health: challenges and next steps. BMJ Ment Health, 26(1).
Susilawati, A., Al-Obaidi, A.S.M., Abduh, A., Irwansyah, F.S. and Nandiyanto, A.B.D., 2025. How to do research methodology: From literature review, bibliometric, step-by-step research stages, to practical examples in science and engineering education. Indonesian Journal of Science and Technology, 10(1), pp.1-40.
Susilo, T. and Duchaine, B., 2025. Improving diagnosis of developmental prosopagnosia: The role of exclusion criteria. Cortex, 183, pp.304-308.
Tusquellas, N., López-Villanueva, D., Palau, R. and Santiago, R., 2025. Educational Conceptual Model Design Research Methodology. UTE Teaching & Technology (Universitas Tarraconensis), (2), pp.e4103-e4103.
