Virtual Care Perceptions and Experiences of Older Adults During COVID-19 in Canada: A Systematic Review
Abstract
1. Introduction
2. Materials and Methods
2.1. Eligibility Criteria
- The article is in English, with full texts available electronically.
- The article captures the experiences of older adults aged 65 and over in Canada.
- The article focuses on virtual care during the COVID-19 pandemic, regardless of publication year.
2.2. Study Selection
2.3. Study Selection Process
2.4. Risk of Bias Assessment
3. Results
3.1. Studies Selected
3.2. Reporting Risk of Bias Assessment
3.3. Thematic Analysis of Results in Selected Studies
3.3.1. Personal Factors Shaping Virtual Care Use and Demand
3.3.2. Resource Factors Impacting Virtual Care Adoption
Technology-Related Factors
Support-Related Factors
3.3.3. Perspectives of Virtual Care Experiences
Assessment Efficacy
“...Sometimes, when you have a problem and you’re seeing a doctor, you want him to look, with his own eyeballs to see the actual thing. You…to see your skin, in the real thing not…not done through a camera, and you want him to poke you, you know, or feel. There’s so much in an examination, that should be done tactile, as opposed to only visual. Only visual, you miss so much without the tactile attached to it.”[30]
Communication Efficacy
“…you do miss some of the eye contact and the body language, and I make the point that when people communicate, they often talk about the words only being about 7%, the tone being 38% of the…body language being 55%, so email or a phone, you might get the tone but you don’t get the body language and that’s, and, sometimes that’s very important. I know, how many times that I noticed body language, that I would ask another question, and bingo, the real problem would come out, where it wouldn’t have come up if you hadn’t been able to observe the body language.”[30]
Resource Benefits
“It saves me the cost, time, and inconvenience of driving to and from the hospital, the cost of parking, and the long walk from the parking lot to the doctor’s office.”[37]
Safety
“It was much better during the COVID [pandemic] than having to go and sit in a waiting room with a whole bunch of other people even though you and they were masked.”[36]
“Because there is nothing like the in-person kind of thing and when you’re talking over the phone again, you still have some privacy issues and there are some things that you prefer to have said completely in private.”[34]
Social Relationships
“...for some people the doctor’s visit is one of your social experiences. The more you live alone, like I live alone, these kinds of contacts are part of your…socialization, your contacts…like going to the library, going to the doctor, these are all things where people have contact with others. So, if you make these things more virtual, you cut back on people’s contacts with the outside world.”[30]
4. Discussion, Strengths and Limitations
4.1. Discussion of Results
4.2. Strengths and Limitations
5. Conclusions
Supplementary Materials
Author Contributions
Funding
Institutional Review Board Statement
Informed Consent Statement
Data Availability Statement
Conflicts of Interest
Abbreviations
PRISMA | Preferred Reporting Items for Systematic Reviews and Meta-Analysis |
MMAT | Mixed Methods Appraisal Tool |
OHIP | Ontario Health Insurance Plan |
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Study | Country/Study Area | Article Title | Methods | Population/Subgroup |
---|---|---|---|---|
[30] | Alberta, Canada Ontario, Canada | The Impact of COVID-19 on Older Adults’ Perceptions of Virtual Care: Qualitative Study | Qualitative: Semi structured interviews of participants (n = 20) | Older adults (65 years and above) Rural, urban, suburban, BIPOC, white |
[5] | Toronto, Ontario, Canada | Virtual follow-up care among breast and prostate cancer patients during and beyond the COVID-19 pandemic: Association with distress | Quantitative: cross-sectional virtual care evaluation survey (n = 352) | Older adult breast and prostate cancer patients (average age 65 years) receiving virtual care. |
[31] | Ontario, Canada | Virtual Care Use Among Older Immigrant Adults in Ontario, Canada during the COVID19 Pandemic: A Repeated Cross-Sectional Analysis | Population-based, repeated cross-sectional study (n = 2,282,798) | Virtual ambulatory visits among older immigrants (age 65 years and older) residing in Ontario, Canada with valid Ontario Health Insurance Plan (OHIP) coverage |
[11] | Ontario, Canada | The Use of Telemedicine in Older-Adults During the COVID-19 Pandemic: a Weekly Cross-Sectional Analysis in Ontario, Canada | Quantitative: Cross-sectional study using administrative data (n = 2,282,798) | Older adults (65 years and above) Rural, urban, variety of neighborhood income groups |
[32] | Ontario, Canada | Geriatric Care Physicians’ Perspectives on Providing Virtual Care: a Reflexive Thematic Synthesis of Their Online Survey Responses from Ontario, Canada | Mixed quantitative and qualitative online survey (n = 29) | Geriatric care physicians working in a long-term care home |
[33] | Quebec, Canada | Implementing a Telehealth Support Tool for Community-Dwelling Older Adults During the COVID-19 Pandemic: A Qualitative Investigation of Provider Experiences | Qualitative: semi-structured online/phone interviews with health and social service providers (n = 20) | Healthcare providers who implemented the ESOGER telehealth tool for older adults |
[34] | Ontario, Canada Quebec, Canada Alberta, Canada | Policy and Practices in Primary care that Supported the Provision and Receipt of Care for Older Persons During the COVID-19 Pandemic: a Qualitative Case Study in Three Canadian Provinces | Qualitative: case study. Interviews using telephone or video conferencing software (n = 64) | Primary care providers and older adult patients |
[35] | Southwestern Ontario, Ontario Canada | Virtual care during COVID-19: The perspectives of older adults and their healthcare providers in a cardiac rehabilitation setting | Qualitative: semi-structured interviews (n = 15) | Older adults 65 years and older and cardiac rehabilitation HCPs from a cardiac rehabilitation unit |
[36] | Eastern province of Canada | Older Adults’ Experiences with Remote Care for Specialized Health Service During the COVID-19 Pandemic: A Descriptive Qualitative Study | Qualitative: content analysis, semi-structured interviews (n = 21) | Patients 65 years of age and older, having received remote care (telephone or online video conference) from a specialist during the COVID 19 pandemic |
[37] | London, Ontario, Canada | A Quantitative and Qualitative Study on Patient and Physician Perceptions of Nephrology Telephone Consultation During COVID-19 | Qualitative & Quantitative: Email survey to patients and nephrologists (n = 235) | Adult patients (≥18 years) (77% ≥ 65 years old) with at least 1 nephrology telephone consultation during the pandemic Fully licensed nephrologists who transitioned to telephone consultation during the pandemic |
[38] | Montreal, Quebec, Canada | Telemedicine in primary care of older adults: a qualitative study | Qualitative: semi structured interviews and focus groups (n = 29, n = 15) | Older adults aged 65 years and older and HCPs from McGill University family medicine sites and 4 Local Community Services Centres. |
[35] | Canada | Personalized Telehealth: Redesigning Complex Care Delivery for the 65+ During the COVID Pandemic: a Survey of Patients, Caregivers, and Healthcare Providers | Qualitative and quantitative: electronic self administered or telephone-administered survey (n = 101) | Patients 65 years and older with multiple comorbidities, Healthcare providers, Caregivers from outpatient clinics |
[39] | Greater Toronto Area, Ontario, Canada | “It’s better than nothing, but I do not find it to be ideal”: Older Adults’ Experience of TeleRehab During the First COVID-19 Lockdown | Qualitative: individual semi-structured interviews (n = 16) | Participants aged 60–85, with confirmed subjective cognitive problems |
[40] | Toronto, Ontario, Canada | Barriers and Facilitators to Virtual Care in a Geriatric Medicine Clinic: A Semi-Structured Interview Study of Patient, Caregiver and Healthcare Provider Perspectives | Qualitative: semi-structured telephone interviews (n = 20) | Patients 65 years and older, healthcare providers, and caregivers from geriatric clinic |
[41] | Canada | Socioeconomic Disparities in the Demand for and Use of Virtual Visits Among Senior Adults During the COVID-19 Pandemic: Cross-Sectional Study | Qualitative & Quantitative: cross-sectional web survey (n = 2303) | A subsample consisting of 2303 older adults, English and/or French speaking with internet access, from the Canadian Digital Health Survey |
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Gao, D.; Xu, A.; Yang, L. Virtual Care Perceptions and Experiences of Older Adults During COVID-19 in Canada: A Systematic Review. Healthcare 2025, 13, 1937. https://doi.org/10.3390/healthcare13151937
Gao D, Xu A, Yang L. Virtual Care Perceptions and Experiences of Older Adults During COVID-19 in Canada: A Systematic Review. Healthcare. 2025; 13(15):1937. https://doi.org/10.3390/healthcare13151937
Chicago/Turabian StyleGao, Donna, Angela Xu, and Lixia Yang. 2025. "Virtual Care Perceptions and Experiences of Older Adults During COVID-19 in Canada: A Systematic Review" Healthcare 13, no. 15: 1937. https://doi.org/10.3390/healthcare13151937
APA StyleGao, D., Xu, A., & Yang, L. (2025). Virtual Care Perceptions and Experiences of Older Adults During COVID-19 in Canada: A Systematic Review. Healthcare, 13(15), 1937. https://doi.org/10.3390/healthcare13151937