The Acceptability of Home Monitoring Technology Among Community-Dwelling Older Adults and Baby Boomers
By Mihailidis, Alex; Cockburn, Amy; Longley, Catherine; Boger, Jennifer; Assistive Technology, Vol. 20, No. 1, pp. 1-12Publication Date: Spring 2008
Study investigated the willingness of two generational cohorts, current baby boomers and older adults, to accept home monitoring technology (HMT). Participants were 15 baby boomers with an average age of 45 to 49 years, and 15 older adults with an average age of 70 to 74 years. A questionnaire as well as videotaped interviews were used to determine participants’ opinions and views on technologies in two categories, HMTs and sensing systems. HMTs included personal emergency response systems (PERS), activity of daily living (ADL) prompting, environmental controls, health and physiological monitoring, and interactive video teleconferencing. Sensing systems included in the survey were switches, motion sensors, video cameras, computer vision, and on-person sensors such as heart-rate monitors. Acceptability was generally highest in the HTM category for environmental controls and health and physiological monitoring systems using sensors worn by the user, and lowest for monitoring systems using sensors placed in the home environment. Sensing systems rated most acceptable by baby boomers were switches, whereas older adults preferred on-person sensors. There was not much of a preference in baby boomers as to where they would be willing to have HMTs and sensors installed, whereas older adults preferred HMTs in the bedroom, bathroom and kitchen, and sensors in the kitchen. Overall, it was found that these technologies would be acceptable if they allowed participants to remain in their homes and to age in place.
Published by: Rehabilitation Engineering & Assistive Technology Society of North America (RESNA) (Website:http://www.resna.org)
