Navigating Aging with Technology: A Scoping Review of Digital Interventions Addressing Intrinsic Capacity Decline in Older Adults

TL;DR

This review explores digital health interventions for maintaining older adults' intrinsic capacity, finding promising but varied results across different domains.

Contribution

The study maps and evaluates digital interventions targeting intrinsic capacity decline in older adults, highlighting gaps in comprehensive domain coverage.

Findings

Most digital interventions focused on single domains, with cognition being the most targeted.

Few studies addressed sensory or vitality domains, and no intervention covered all five IC domains.

Effectiveness varied, with many showing significant improvements but limited by small study sizes.

Abstract

Background: Intrinsic capacity (IC) is key to promoting healthy aging, and managing declines in IC is crucial for delaying functional deterioration in older adults. Digital health interventions (DHIs) hold promising potential for addressing IC decline. This scoping review aims to synthesize existing evidence by mapping the types of DHIs employed and examining their effects across the five domains of IC in older adults. Methods: The review was conducted following the five-stage framework of Arksey and O’Malley and the PRISMA-ScR guideline. The search was performed across PubMed, Embase, CINAHL, Cochrane Library, PsycINFO, SinoMed, and CNKI databases for studies published between 1 January 2015 and 31 July 2025. Relevant studies were identified using MeSH terms and free-text terms related to “older adults”, “digital health”, and “intrinsic capacity”. Results: Based on the eligibility criteria, 81 studies were included. The DHIs identified encompassed virtual reality, exergames, computerized cognitive training, mHealth, internet-based interventions, telehealth, digital hearing aids, assistive robotics, and visual biofeedback. Most studies focused on single-domain interventions (74%), with cognition being the most targeted (40.7%), while sensory (4.9%) and vitality (2.5%) domains received the least attention. No digital interventions targeted all five IC domains. Regarding efficacy, many DHIs reported statistically significant improvements in one or more IC domains; however, the magnitude and consistency of these effects varied considerably across studies. Conclusions: Preliminary evidence suggests that DHIs show potential in managing declines in IC among older adults. However, evidence quality varies significantly, often derived from small-scale studies. Future research should focus on establishing clinical effectiveness through adequately powered trials and on integrating DHIs into comprehensive intervention strategies that target all domains of IC, with robust evaluation of their outcomes.

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