Gerontechnology — new opportunities in the service of older adults

Abstract

Abstract The increasingly more visible trend of population ageing necessitates creating technologies supporting the functioning of older adults. Consequently, more gerontechnologies emerge designed to help the older adults in their daily functioning, from devices monitoring the health to special trolleys improving the mobility or Virtual Reality devices for active learning. This article aimed to determine the most desired group of gerontechnologies among current and future users. It focused on individual assessments of the most desirable group of gerontechnologies based on various criteria. The investigation aimed to find the criterion rated the highest in the selected group of gerontechnologies. The gerontechnology group was assessed against seven groups of criteria distinguished by the authors, i.e., Technology Innovation, Technology Demand, Social and Ethical Criteria, Technology Usability, Technology Functionality, Technology Ease of Use and Technology Use Risk. The survey was conducted in the form of a questionnaire, using CAWI (Computer-Assisted Web Interview) and CATI (Computer-Assisted Telephone Interview) methods, with the research sample comprised of 1 152 residents of Poland. Thus far, no studies have been conducted to evaluate this group of technologies based on the above-mentioned criteria.