A RAPID REALISTIC REVIEW TO INFORM AN IMPLEMENTATION PROJECT; ASSISTIVE TECHNOLOGIES WITH CO-DESIGN AND OLDER ADULTS

Abstract

Abstract Objective This presentation reports on a rapid realist review of participatory co-design approaches to developing assistive technologies with older adults. It provides an evidence synthesis of the key mechanisms, contexts and outcomes that drive success and failure in the use of participatory co-design in this field. This KISSS-AT sub-project, was undertaken to help inform stakeholder partners and the wider gerontechnological community of the key challenges and opportunities, that participatory co-design offers the field. Methods We conducted a rapid realist review (Saul et al., 2013). We identified 1060 citations from databases (AgeLine, BSC, CINAHL, MEDLINE, PycINFO, Sociological Abstracts and Web of Science), and 936 from hand journal searches (Ageing and Society, CSCW, Gerontechnology). We screened 311 full-text articles, with 19 articles for extraction. We extracted an additional 9 articles in order to capture post-search publications and a few articles identified through additional snowball citation searches. We analyzed the data for context-mechanism-outcome configurations (Pawson, 2015; Wong et al., 2013) that we found were relevant to our initial program theory, and used analytical induction to test emerging themes with our data set. Results We identified two key theoretical dimensions (1. Epistemological 2. Ethico-political) of participatory co-design with older adults, as part of our program theory, along with several C-M-O-Cs related to each dimension. Conclusions We found that paying attention to the underlying dimensions of participatory co-design, and the key mechanisms and contexts that support its successful implementation is fundamental to realizing the promise of this approach to gerontechnology development and implementation.