Use of Digital Technologies for Older Adults' Ties during Visitation Restrictions in Long-term Care Facilities: A Scoping Review

Digital technologies were implemented to address long-term care facility residents' disrupted socialization needs during the COVID-19 pandemic. A literature review regarding this topic is needed to inform public policy, facility's managers, family caregivers, and nurses/allies health professionals involved in mediating the use of digital devices for resident's social ties. Our study outlines key concepts, methodologies, results, issues, and gaps in articles published during pandemic-related visitation restrictions.Our study outlines key concepts, methodologies, results, issues, and gaps in articles published during pandemic-related visitation restrictions.Following the PRISMA-ScR protocol, a Scoping review was conducted by searching 3 databases aggregator platforms (EBSCO, ProQuest, and PubMed) for studies published in peer-reviewed journals from early 2020 to the end of June 2021, when the most stringent restrictions were in place. We included qualitative and quantitative studies, reviews, commentaries, viewpoints and letters to the editors in French or English focusing on digital technologies aiming to supporting the social contacts of residents in long-term care facilities during the pandemic-related visitation restrictions.Among 763 screened articles, 29 met our selection criteria. For each of them, we characterized the (1) Authors / Title / Date of publication (2) Country of the first author (3) Research fields (4) Article type (5) Type of technology mentioned. The analysis distinguishes three main themes emerging from the literature: (a) impact and expectations of remote social contact on the physical and mental health and well-being of the residents (n = 12), (b) with whom or what the social contact takes place (n = 17), and (c) limitations and barriers to significant social contact related to digital technologies (n = 14). The results first underline the highly positive impact expected by the authors of the digital technologies on health and quality of life of long-term care facilities' residents. Second, they highlight the plurality of ties to consider, since the social contacts take place not only with family caregivers to maintain a contact but also for other purposes (end-of-life videoconferences) and with other types of contact (e.g., with staff and with robots). Thirdly, they expose the limitations and barriers to significant contact using digital technologies, and outline the required conditions to enable them.The review demonstrated the opportunities and risks outlined by the literature about the implementation of digital technologies to support remote social contacts. It shows the plurality of ties to consider and reveals the need to evaluate the positive impact of the remote contacts from the resident's perspective. Therefore, to go beyond the digital solutionism risk, there is a need for studies considering the holistic impact on health regarding the implementation of digital technologies, including the meaning residents give to interpersonal exchanges and the organizational constraints.