Abstract
Background: In the context of growing population ageing, technologies aimed at helping people age in place play a fundamental role. Acceptance of the implementation of technological solutions can be defined as the intention to use a technology or the effective use of it. Approaches based on the technology acceptance model (TAM) have been shown to have good predictive power for pre-implementation attitudes towards new technologies. Objective: To analyze the degree of acceptability of the use of new technologies for ageing in place and the factors associated with greater acceptance in people older than 64 years. Methodology: A descriptive cross-sectional study was carried out. Sociodemographic, clinical and environmental variables, architectural barriers, social risk and quality of life, degree of autonomy, morbidity, and risk of falls were collected in a population sample over 64 years of age in a large region of western Spain. The degree of acceptance of the use of technologies was measured through a scale based on the TAM. Results: Of the 293 people included in the study, 36.2% exhibited a high acceptability of new technologies, 28.3% exhibited a medium acceptability, and 35.5% exhibited a low acceptability. Of all the factors, age, education level, and living alone were significantly associated with high acceptance in the adjusted analyses. Conclusions: Younger age, a higher education level, and living alone are factors associated with a greater degree of acceptance of the use of technologies for ageing in place.
Highlights
This percentage has increased exponentially in recent years, so much so that, according to the United Nations world population outlook report [3], in 2050, 1 in eleven people will be over 65 years of age, increasing this proportion to 25% in European countries
The aim of this study was to analyze the degree of acceptability of the use of new technologies for ageing in place and the factors associated with a greater degree of acceptance by people older than 64 years of age
When analyzing the crude and adjusted strengths of association between the variables assessed and the degree of acceptance (Table 6), age was significantly associated with a medium and high acceptability to new technologies, with greater acceptability associated with a younger age, a finding that was maintained for both levels of acceptability in the adjusted analyses, with a mean acceptability adjusted odds ratios (aORs) of 0.94
Summary
It is estimated that 9% of the more than eight billion inhabitants on the planet are over 64 years old [1]. According to the projections by the National Institute of Statistics of Spain, in 2068, 29.4% of the rural population will be over 64 years of age, of whom more than 50,000 will live alone [2,6]. Approaches based on the technology acceptance model (TAM) have been shown to have good predictive power for pre-implementation attitudes towards new technologies. Objective: To analyze the degree of acceptability of the use of new technologies for ageing in place and the factors associated with greater acceptance in people older than 64 years. The degree of acceptance of the use of technologies was measured through a scale based on the TAM. Results: Of the 293 people included in the study, 36.2% exhibited a high acceptability of new technologies, 28.3% exhibited a medium acceptability, and 35.5% exhibited a low acceptability. Age, education level, and living alone were significantly associated with high acceptance in the adjusted analyses
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