Aging in the Digital Age: Conceptualizing Technology Adoption and Digital Inequalities

Francis, Jessica; Ball, Christopher; Kadylak, Travis; Cotten, Shelia R.

doi:10.1007/978-981-13-3693-5_3

Cited by 75 publications

(65 citation statements)

References 57 publications

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“…Furthermore, end users have different thresholds for acceptance of innovation and can be grouped into five archetypes: innovators, early adopters, early majority, late majority, and laggards 6 . In addition, aging adults, considered amongst the most digitally divided demographic group 7 , present unique challenges and dedicated efforts exist to develop strategies for implementation [7][8][9][10] . Conversely, challenges exist for healthcare innovators to best demonstrate solution impacts and to ensure compliance with standards, these include: unclear end-user expectations; uncertainty of evidence generation approaches; and, keeping up to date with the evolving compliance landscapes.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Challenges for the evaluation of digital health solutions—A call for innovative evidence generation approaches

et al. 2020

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The field of digital health, and its meaning, has evolved rapidly over the last 20 years. For this article we followed the most recent definition provided by FDA in 2020. Emerging solutions offers tremendous potential to positively transform the healthcare sector. Despite the growing number of applications, however, the evolution of methodologies to perform timely, cost-effective and robust evaluations have not kept pace. It remains an industry-wide challenge to provide credible evidence, therefore, hindering wider adoption. Conventional methodologies, such as clinical trials, have seldom been applied and more pragmatic approaches are needed. In response, several academic centers such as researchers from the Institute of Global Health Innovation at Imperial College London have initiated a digital health clinical simulation test bed to explore new approaches for evidence gathering relevant to solution type and maturity. The aim of this article is to: (1) Review current research approaches and discuss their limitations; (2) Discuss challenges faced by different stakeholders in undertaking evaluations; and (3) Call for new approaches to facilitate the safe and responsible growth of the digital health sector.

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Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Challenges for the evaluation of digital health solutions—A call for innovative evidence generation approaches

et al. 2020

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“…Unfortunately, there exists a substantial age-related gap with respect to mobile device experience and proficiency [9]. In the U.S., only 53% of adults aged 65+ own a smartphone, compared to 96% of adults aged 18-29 [6].…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…Likewise, smartphone rehabilitation apps were shown to be promising for delivering therapeutic treatment to (older) patients, improving not only their health conditions but also other aspects of quality of life [20]. While technology proficiency benefits all, the benefits to older adults may be especially great [9], [21].…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Improving the Measurement of Older Adults’ Mobile Device Proficiency: Results and Implications from a Study of Older Adult Smartphone Users

et al. 2019

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Mobile device (e.g., smartphone) proficiency is becoming increasingly necessary to perform important everyday tasks, and inadequate proficiency can prevent groups of individuals such as older adults from obtaining the benefits of mobile computing and smartphone utilization. To facilitate mobile device training and research on barriers to mobile device use and adoption by older adults, Roque and Boot [1] developed the Mobile Device Proficiency Questionnaire (MDPQ). The current study is the first to assess the validity of the MDPQ based on confirmatory factor analysis and objective measures of their smartphone skills. In addition, it represents the first attempt to validate the MDPQ on a sample of older smartphone users. Results suggest that modifications may be necessary for the MDPQ to serve as a valid and reliable measure of proficiency among older adult smartphone users. In this sense, four important implications and recommendations for application of the MDPQ are discussed that could promote the general goal of ensuring that individuals of all ages can benefit from the use of smartphone devices and services such as mobile apps. INDEX TERMS Social implications of technology, human-computer interaction, cellular phones, construct validity, criterion validity, mobile device proficiency questionnaire, older adults, scale development.

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“…Main categories of the findings All things considered, I basically agree with previous research in that both the structures framing seniors' lives, as well as their agency, interplay in their particular contexts of technology use and rejection(Neves and Mead, 2018;Quan-Haase et al, 2016). As the literature has repeatedly stated, older adults are a very heterogenous group and some embrace technology while others avoid it(Francis et al, 2019; see also…”

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confidence: 83%

Ageing and Technology: the case of a one-tablet-per-senior program in Uruguay

Castleton¹

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This thesis examines the relationship between older persons and technology, focusing on a one-tablet-per-retired-senior public program -Plan Ibirapitá-being developed in Uruguay. It is situated within recent Science and Technology Studies (STS)-inspired research on aging and technology that has stressed that older people and technology are co-constructed or co-constituted, namely, that rather than being technologically-averse, older people negotiate with technology in specific contexts. This thesis also uses the philosophical reflections of José Ortega y Gasset on the relationship between self, circumstance and life as a que-hacer (having-to-do), suggesting that it could provide new means of conceptualizing the relationship between older people and technology, emphasizing the agency of the former. Within this framework, this thesis is the product of a qualitative research design through which I interviewed Uruguayan seniors who received the tablet. My research found that there is a prevailing techno-optimist discourse that frames technologies, such as the tablets distributed under Plan Ibirapitá, as an intrinsically good and necessary thing for seniors' lives that my research participants rhetorically embraced but was not reflected in their actual usage of the tablet. Such a program is valuable insofar it provides digital access to a population -older peoplethat theoretically suffers the consequences of the digital divide. However, exclusion from the information society may not be a problem for many seniors. I suggest that seniors should be conceptualized as agents who actively decide the role that technology plays in their lives and for whom being included in the information society means different things according to their individual context. I also suggest that it is necessary to focus on how iii seniors relate to digital technology precisely as part of their circumstances, and how they understand being digitally included or excluded themselves.iv

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Aging in the Digital Age: Conceptualizing Technology Adoption and Digital Inequalities

Cited by 75 publications

References 57 publications

Challenges for the evaluation of digital health solutions—A call for innovative evidence generation approaches

Challenges for the evaluation of digital health solutions—A call for innovative evidence generation approaches

Improving the Measurement of Older Adults’ Mobile Device Proficiency: Results and Implications from a Study of Older Adult Smartphone Users

Ageing and Technology: the case of a one-tablet-per-senior program in Uruguay

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