Acceptance and Use of Mobile Devices and Apps by Elderly People

Abstract

Currently, there is an increase in the number of older generation groups. These demographic changes obviously cause serious social and economic problems. Therefore, there is a need to prolong an active life of elderly people, who want to lead active, fulfilling and quality life in a sense of their inclusion, socialization and independence. This can be achieved not only by continuous support from their family members, but current trends show an important role of information and communication technologies (ICT) in this process. The purpose of this study is to explore the acceptance and use of mobile technology, specifically mobile devices and applications by elderly people, both from the technical and sociological point of view. The methods used in this study include a method of literature review of available sources, a method of comparison and evaluation of the findings from the selected studies on this topic. The findings show that although there is a number of mobile apps for the elderly on the market, they do not usually meet specific needs of these people such as their physical and cognitive impairments or relevant technical specifications of mobile device designed for this group of people. In addition, since the use of mobile technologies by elderly people is quite a new field of research, there are almost no research studies which would prove acceptance of these mobile apps. Therefore, there is a need of vast and detailed research in this area and also find a solution to this complex technological and sociological issue.

Mediating Social Tourism Experiences Through a Mobile Application

“…Despite its simplicity, we believe the application fulfils the purpose for which it was designed. This simplicity is due to the target user population, notably participants, whose physical and cognitive conditions require special requirements in the application design (Klimova, 2018). Within the scope of e-Tourism, Ribeiro et al (2018a) and Ribeiro et al (2018b) have already proposed a Framework for accessible tourism mobile application development, although focused on people with disabilities.…”

“…The acceptance and use of mobile devices and applications by the elderly remains an active field of study. There are several mobile applications on the market for the elderly but they seldom meet the specific needs of this target group due to their physical and cognitive impairments (Klimova, 2018).…”

Is The Timed-Up and Go Test Feasible in Mobile Devices? A Systematic Review

“…The use of mobile devices by older people was evaluated with the use of questionnaires and interviews [10]. In general, most older people only uses mobile phones for emergency situations, i.e., voice calls, and only a few of them use these devices for SMS and video calls [11,12]. Furthermore, mobile devices incorporate high processing power, numerous sensors, and connectivity methods for short-range and long-range communications [13].…”

Machine Learning Techniques with ECG and EEG Data: An Exploratory Study

“…These devices are equipped with different sensors, but more sensors can be connected through over-the-air connections [12][13][14][15][16][17][18]. These devices with increasing number of functionalities, and the number of available sensors, boost the options for creation of systems that could assist older adults [15,[19][20][21][22]. The use of this data captured in each individual and their subsequent calculation present the potential of these projects.…”