Abstract
It is expected that, by 2050, people aged over 60 in 65 nations will constitute 30% of the total population. Healthy aging is at the top of the world political agenda as a possible means for hindering the collapse of care systems. How can ICT/sensing technology meet older people’s needs for active and healthy aging? This qualitative study carried out in Italy and Romania in 2020 involved 30 participants: older adults, caregivers, and stakeholders. Based on a user-centered design approach, this study aimed to understand which requirements of ICT/sensing technologies could match people’s needs of active and healthy aging. Findings highlighted that ICT/sensing technology needs to focus on six major themes: (1) learnability, (2) security, (3) independence, empowerment, and coaching values, (4) social isolation, (5) impact of habit, culture, and education variables, and (6) personalized solutions. These themes are consistent with the Active Aging framework and the factors that influence perceived usefulness and potential benefits among older adults. Consequently, this study shows how well-known, but still unresolved, issues affect the field of information and communication technologies (ICTs) to promote active and healthy aging. This suggests that the reinforcement of the public health system, especially considering the pandemic effect, requires a concrete and formidable effort from an interdisciplinary research network.
Highlights
Population aging is a global trend; there were 703 million persons aged 65 years or over in the world in 2019, and this number is projected to double to 1.5 billion in 2050 [1].Since older adults are healthier than ever before, the concepts of active and healthy aging emerged in 1990 as the foremost policy answer to the demands of this global demographic trend [2,3]
The World Health Organization (WHO) defined active aging as “the process of optimizing opportunities for health, participation, and security in order to enhance quality of life as people age” [4] for “helping people stay in charge of their own lives for as long as possible as they age and, where possible, to contribute to the economy and society” [5]
This study forms part of the European project “Safety of Elderly People and Vicinity Ensuring” (SAVE), aimed at providing a technology platform to support the healthy aging of older adults suffering from age-related chronic illnesses or mild cognitive issues and/or disabilities
Summary
Population aging is a global trend; there were 703 million persons aged 65 years or over in the world in 2019, and this number is projected to double to 1.5 billion in 2050 [1].Since older adults are healthier than ever before, the concepts of active and healthy aging emerged in 1990 as the foremost policy answer to the demands of this global demographic trend [2,3]. The World Health Organization (WHO) defined active aging as “the process of optimizing opportunities for health, participation, and security in order to enhance quality of life as people age” [4] for “helping people stay in charge of their own lives for as long as possible as they age and, where possible, to contribute to the economy and society” [5]. This definition opened the path to a new paradigm that considers the growing number of older individuals as a potential resource for families, communities, the economy, 4.0/).
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