The influence of culture on older adults’ adoption of smart home monitoring

Abstract

Background Older adults’ acceptability of smart homes that learn their motion patterns and can take an action on their behalf has received little attention. This interdisciplinary study explored the influence of culture on older adults’ adoption of smart home monitoring. Method In-depth email interviews were used with a purposive sample of US older adults (n=21) age 65 and older. Participants were asked to prospectively consider the question of adoption of a smart home that combines artificial intelligence software with sensor monitoring for the purpose of maintaining safety and health of the community-dwelling older adult. Content analysis, consistent with the qualitative descriptive methodology, was used to organize data into low-inference themes. Themes were iteratively evaluated and consensus among the research team was achieved. Results and discussion Themes that emerged from rich text and were supported with participants’ own words were privacy, pride and dignity, family, trust, being watched, human touch, features and functionality, cost, and timing. Participants were asked to self-identify their own culture of socially constructed values, which were found to heavily inform perceptions of privacy, independence, and family. Many participants indicated a prospective openness to smart home interventions, including monitoring. Openness depended on (i) the level and specificity of need and whether the smart home would meet that need, (ii) perceived loss of privacy compensated by a feeling of safety and a receipt of health-assistance, (iii) functionality, and (iv) cost. Findings from this study explicate and illuminate older adults’ perceptions and descriptions of smart home monitoring, the relation to their own socially constructed values, and the influence on a decision to adopt or not adopt smart home monitoring. Findings may be used to inform the design of future smart homes, marketing, clinical practice and education, health policy, interdisciplinary collaboration, and research.