European policy and the research and development landscape put forward a number of arguments in favor of implementing “Active Assisted Living” (AAL) for older adults: it will improve older adults’ quality of life, allow them to age in place, and keep costs for an ageing society down by exploiting new technology markets. The idea is that older adults who are supported by AAL and make use of assistive technologies will enjoy more freedom, autonomy, and mobility and also improved social integration and better communication. Yet, despite a history of more than 10 years of European research and development, the use of AAL applications is not as widespread as expected. To examine older adults’ attitudes to assistive technologies, we conducted a study in Vienna (Austria) between 2018 and 2020 questioning 245 older adults aged 61–93 years (M = 74.27 SD = 6.654) who lived at their private homes and had different support needs (ranging from “no support” to “everyday visit of social and/or care organizations”). The three goals of the study encompassed: (1) examination of their quality of life, (2) their attitudes and use of assistive technologies, and (3) the way they perceive their own and others’ life-course and getting older. AAL as a concept links “ageing in place” and “quality of life”. However, “mobility” is also of major importance here. In this paper, we aim to investigate the relation between the independent variables “Quality of life” and “Mobility” and their possible associations with the following dependent variables: cohabitation, social integration, self-rated health, sportive activities, locomotion, home well-being and safety, physical limitations, falls, and self-perception of their own ageing (compared to others). We calculated multivariate models regressing on these explaining and confounding variables. We found a positive correlation between mobility and quality of life. In detail, our results show a significant positive association between QOL and mobility regarding self-rated health and self-perception. Experiencing vertigo, walking difficulties, and balance problems significantly and negatively influence self-rated health and self-perception compared to others. Our findings can also be read as a clear message that there is a need to improve both health and the culture of ageing and to facilitate positive attitudes toward ageing as an efficient way to enhance the Quality of life of older adults.

Cities face an evident demographic change, making assistive technologies (AAL) an interesting choice to support older adults to autonomously age in place. Yet, supportive technologies are not as widely spread as one would expect. Hence, we investigate the surroundings of older adults living in Vienna and analyse their “socio relational setup”, considering their social integration and psychophysical state compared to others (health, fitness, activeness, contentedness). Method: Our data included 245 older adults (age: M = 74, SD = 6654) living in their own homes (2018–2020 with different grades of needing support). We calculated univariate and multivariate models regressing the socio-relational setup on the change of routines, technology attitude, mobility aid use, internet use, subjective age, openness to move to an institutional care facility in the future, and other confounding variables. Results: We found a strong correlation between all categories (health, fitness, activeness, contentedness) of older adults comparing themselves to their peers. Among others, they are significantly related to institutional care openness, which implies that participants who felt fitter and more active than their peers were less clear in visualising their future: unpleasant circumstances of ageing are suppressed if the current life circumstances are perceived as good. This is an example of cognitive dissonance.