11 Jun New Pharaon publication: User needs and perspectives on technologies or healthy ageing

Older adults are the most vulnerable and fastest-growing age group in Europe. Ageing introduces psychosocial and physical challenges that should be addressed (ten Bruggencate et al., 2019; Zallio and Berry, 2016). WHO views Healthy Ageing as a solution to these challenges, and considers older adults to be active participants in managing their health and well-being.
The paradigm involves them in defining their needs, which is important to increase the older adults’  connectedness, meaningfulness, and independence (ten Bruggencate et al., 2019). Their health, wellbeing and social isolation can be improved with health-related technologies and building solutions (Zallio and Berry, 2016). However, a lot of older adults are not willing to use or adopt smart technologies (Zallio
and Berry, 2016) due to individual differences and needs, which are usually not addressed by technology alone.
To address this knowledge gap, interviews were conducted to identify older adults’ needs and willingness to accept and adopt technology in their life that will help them stay independent longer. The goal of the study was to examine their physical and psychosocial needs as well as technological requirements so these could be addressed by a combination of new and existing solutions prepared as part of the Pilots
for Healthy and Active Ageing Horizon 2020 project.
A sample of 64 older adults completed a two-part questionnaire with the support of a researcher. The first part examined physical and psychosocial well-being by asking close-ended questions from previously validated scales. The second part examined participants’ attitudes towards using technology in healthcare using a modified version of the Health Care Barriers Instrument (LeRouge et al., 2014) supported with demonstration videos of selected technologies. The results of the study demonstrate the barriers to technology adoption and the need to involve older adults in the design and selection of solutions they will use.

Access the article (click here)

ERCE, Mateja, OVSENIK, Rok, LIPOVAC, Dean in BURNARD, Michael David, 2021, User needs and perspectives on technologies or healthy ageing. V : Healthy and sustainable renovation with renewable materials [na spletu]. Izola. 2021. [Dostopano 26 januar 2022]. Pridobljeno od: https://repozitorij.upr.si/IzpisGradiva.php?lang=slv&id=16691