Factors Associated with the Acceptance of New Technologies for Ageing in Place by People over 64 Years of Age.

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.