JMIR Publications

ABSTRACT

Background:

An increasing ageing population has become a pressing problem for many countries. Smart systems and intelligent technologies support ageing in place, thereby alleviating the strain on healthcare systems.

Objective:

This study aimed to identify decision-making factors involved in the adoption of smart home sensors (SHS) by older adults in Singapore.

Methods:

The study involved three phases: (1) As intervention, SHS were installed in older adults’ homes (N=42) for four to five weeks; (2) In-depth semi-structured interviews were conducted with 18 older adults, two centre managers, one family caregiver, and one volunteer, to understand factors involved in the decision-making process towards adoption of SHS; (3) Follow-up feedback was collected from 42 older adult participants to understand reasons for adopting/ not adopting SHS.

Results:

31 of 42 participants (73.8%) adopted SHS post-intervention, while 11 (26.2%) did not. Reasons for not adopting SHS ranged from privacy concerns to lack of family support. Some participants did not fully understand the SHS functionality and did not perceive a benefit in using SHS. From interviews, we found the decision-making process towards the adoption of SHS technology involved intrinsic factors such as understanding the technology, perceiving its usefulness and benefits, and more extrinsic factors such as considering affordability, and care support from the community.

Conclusions:

We found training and a strong support ecosystem could empower older adults in their decision to adopt technology. Also, we advise the involvement of older adults in the design process to build user-centric assistive technology.