Abstract
Research is often focused on understanding barriers to the use and adoption of technology to support older adults’ (65+) instrumental activities of daily living (IADLs), such as communication, banking, and transportation. Less attention is paid to technology to support enhanced activities of daily living (EADLs), activities that enrich our daily lives, even though they have the potential to improve wellbeing, promote physical and emotional health, and reduce stress. Here, we explored how older adults interacted with commercial virtual reality (VR) to investigate the feasibility of using VR as an EADL support system. Older adults navigated different VR environments, including environments that were meditation, exploration, and game-oriented. Of particular interest was whether older adults (N = 20) psychologically experienced differing degrees of presence within virtual environments compared to younger adults (N = 20), and potential barriers to use as assessed by measures of workload and system usability. Given previously observed age-related differences in cybersickness, this was also assessed as a potential barrier. Compared to younger adults, older adults expressed a greater sense of presence in virtual environments, with nonsignificant differences in perceived workload and usability according to most measures. Contrary to expectations, older adults reported significantly less cybersickness compared to younger adults. Results suggest that VR is a promising means to support older adults’ EADLs.
Highlights
The Potential of Technology to Support Older AdultsTechnology has potential to support older adults’ Instrumental Activities of Daily Living (IADLs), activities crucial for independence, such as managing finances, household tasks, and healthcare activities (Charness and Boot, 2009; Horgas and Abowd, 2004; Ramprasad et al, 2019)
Of particular interest was whether older adults psychologically experienced presence differently within virtual environments compared to younger adults, as this is one of the defining characteristics of this technology, and potential barriers to use as assessed by measures of workload and system usability
An ANOVA was conducted on Computer Proficiency Questionnaire (CPQ) scores, corresponding to proficiency across a variety of computer tasks
Summary
The Potential of Technology to Support Older AdultsTechnology has potential to support older adults’ Instrumental Activities of Daily Living (IADLs), activities crucial for independence, such as managing finances, household tasks, and healthcare activities (Charness and Boot, 2009; Horgas and Abowd, 2004; Ramprasad et al, 2019). There has been considerably less attention paid to the potential of technologies to support older adults’ participation in enrichment activities, or as Rogers et al (1998) called them, Enhanced Activities of Daily Living (EADLs). A host of barriers can possibly preclude meaningful interactions with technology to support IADLs and EADLs when technology is not designed considering the needs, preferences, abilities, and experiences of older user and when older adults are not included in the design process (Czaja et al, 2019). By understanding older adults’ perceptions of technology and barriers to adoption, technology can be better designed to encourage technology adoption and use to benefit all activities of daily living, including EADLs (Charness and Boot, 2009). The current report investigated how older adults interacted with a relatively novel—and increasingly prevalent—form of technology to support EADLs: consumer immersive virtual reality (VR) technology. Of particular interest was whether older adults psychologically experienced presence differently within virtual environments compared to younger adults, as this is one of the defining characteristics of this technology, and potential barriers to use as assessed by measures of workload and system usability
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