“That’s for old so and so’s!”: does identity influence older adults’ technology adoption decisions?

The role of identity in older adults’ decision-making about assistive technology adoption has been suggested but not fully explored. This scoping review was conducted to better understand how older adults’ self-image and their desire to maintain this, influences their decision-making processes regarding assistive technology adoption. Using the five-stage scoping review framework by Arksey and O’Malley, a total of 416 search combinations were run across 9 databases, resulting in a final yield of 49 articles. From these 49 articles, five themes emerged: (1) Resisting the negative reality of an ageing and/or disabled identity; (2) Independence and control are key; (3) The aesthetic dimension of usability; (4) Assistive technology as a last resort; and (5) Privacy versus pragmatics. The findings highlight the importance of older adults’ desire to portray an identity consistent with independence, self-reliance and competence, and how this desire directly impacts their assistive technology decision-making adoption patterns. These findings aim to support the adoption of assistive technologies by older adults to facilitate engagement in meaningful activities, enable social participation within the community, and promote health and well-being in later life

Future bathroom: A study of user-centred design principles affecting usability, safety and satisfaction in bathrooms for people living with disabilities

Research and development work relating to assistive technology 2010-11 (Department of Health) Presented to Parliament pursuant to Section 22 of the Chronically Sick and Disabled Persons Act 197

Progress in ambient assisted systems for independent living by the elderly

One of the challenges of the ageing population in many countries is the efficient delivery of health and care services, which is further complicated by the increase in neurological conditions among the elderly due to rising life expectancy. Personal care of the elderly is of concern to their relatives, in case they are alone in their homes and unforeseen circumstances occur, affecting their wellbeing. The alternative; i.e. care in nursing homes or hospitals is costly and increases further if specialized care is mobilized to patients’ place of residence. Enabling technologies for independent living by the elderly such as the ambient assisted living systems (AALS) are seen as essential to enhancing care in a cost-effective manner. In light of significant advances in telecommunication, computing and sensor miniaturization, as well as the ubiquity of mobile and connected devices embodying the concept of the Internet of Things (IoT), end-to-end solutions for ambient assisted living have become a reality. The premise of such applications is the continuous and most often real-time monitoring of the environment and occupant behavior using an event-driven intelligent system, thereby providing a facility for monitoring and assessment, and triggering assistance as and when needed. As a growing area of research, it is essential to investigate the approaches for developing AALS in literature to identify current practices and directions for future research. This paper is, therefore, aimed at a comprehensive and critical review of the frameworks and sensor systems used in various ambient assisted living systems, as well as their objectives and relationships with care and clinical systems. Findings from our work suggest that most frameworks focused on activity monitoring for assessing immediate risks while the opportunities for integrating environmental factors for analytics and decision-making, in particular for the long-term care were often overlooked. The potential for wearable devices and sensors, as well as distributed storage and access (e.g. cloud) are yet to be fully appreciated. There is a distinct lack of strong supporting clinical evidence from the implemented technologies. Socio-cultural aspects such as divergence among groups, acceptability and usability of AALS were also overlooked. Future systems need to look into the issues of privacy and cyber security

Toward the adoption of digital assistive technology: Factors affecting older people's initial trust formation

In recent decades, Europe has experienced a major societal challenge—the aging of the human population. The Finnish government has responded to this challenge by focusing on individually tailored services that enable older adults to live independently and comfortably at home for longer with the help of digital assistive technology. This paper presents the findings of an empirical study on how initial trust is formed with regard technology adoption by older people. Four bases of trust (personality, cognitive, calculative, and institutional) underpin the theoretical framework of the study. A qualitative research approach was adopted, utilizing individual and focus group interviews with older people living independently in urban and rural areas of South Finland. The findings derived from thematic analysis offer new insights into the complex and multidimensional process of older people's initial trust formation, which is affected by an interplay of 12 identified factors shaping the four bases of trust and four supplementary factors. These findings lead to propositions for future research