Attitudes of Health Care Professionals Toward Older Adults’ Abilities to Use Digital Technology: Questionnaire Study

Abstract

Background Digital technologies (DTs) for older adults focus mainly on health care and are considered to have the potential to improve the well-being of older adults. However, adoption rates of these DTs are considered low. Although previous research has investigated possible reasons for adoption and acceptance of DT, age-based stereotypes (eg, those held by health care professionals) toward the abilities of older adults to use DTs have yet to be considered as possible barriers to adoption. Objective The aim of this study was to investigate the influencing role of ageism in the context of health care professionals attitudes toward older adults’ abilities to use health care DT. A further goal was to examine if social comparison and stereotype activation affect and moderate this association. Methods A new measurement to assess health care professionals’ attitudes toward older adults using technology (ATOAUT-10) was developed and used in 2 studies. Study 1 involved the development of the ATOAUT-10 scale using a principal component analysis and further examined health care professionals’ attitudes toward the use of health care DTs and correlations with ageism. Study 2 further explored the correlation between ageism and ATOAUT in an experimental design with health care professionals. Results In study 1, physiotherapists (N=97) rated older adults as young as 50 years as less able to use health care DT compared to younger adults (P<.001). A multiple regression analysis revealed that higher levels of ageism, beyond other predictors, were predictive of more negative ATOAUT, (β=.36; t=3.73; P<.001). In study 2, the salience of age was manipulated. Health care professionals (N=93) were randomly assigned to rate the abilities of a young or old person to use health care DT. Old age salience moderated the correlation between ageism and ATOAUT (R2=0.19; F6,85=3.35; P=.005), such that higher levels of ageism correlated with more negative ATOAUT in the old age salient condition, but not the young condition. Stereotype activation accounted for health care professionals’ attitudes more than did the experience of working with older patients or the professionals’ age. Conclusions Negative and ageist attitudes of health care professionals can potentially affect how older adults are viewed in relation to DT and consequently might influence actual use and adoption of technology-based treatment. Future studies should broaden the validation of the ATOAUT-10 scale on more diverse samples and focus on the discriminatory aspect of ageism and self-ageism of older adults. This study calls for a focus on ageism as a determinant of adoption of DT.

The Role of Ageism in the Acceptance and Use of Digital Technology

“…Examining H2 partially confirmed our hypothesis that the relation of older age with more negative ATOAUT is partially mediated by self-ageism, but not by experienced ageism. These results corroborate with the findings of Mannheim et al (2021), and demonstrate that socially learned, internalized stereotypes and prejudice toward older age are directed toward oneself in the context of DT.…”

“…Attitudes Toward Older Adults' Abilities to Use DT (ATOAUT-11). The ATOAUT scale, previously used by Mannheim et al (2021), consists of ten items relating to stereotypes and prejudice regarding older adults and DT. Following feedback from participating older person organizations, an additional item was added about fear being scammed.…”

“…The association between age and technology acceptance may be mediated by cognitive abilities, computer self-efficacy, and computer anxiety (Czaja et al, 2006). A previous study investigating ageism in the context of DT, found a correlation between higher levels of ageism and negative stereotypical attitudes toward older adults' abilities to use digital technology (Mannheim et al, 2021). It was found that healthcare professionals perceived adults as young as 50 as less probable to be able to use health-related DT (comparing to younger age groups).…”

“…Negative stereotyping is also potentially driven by research on technology acceptance models, such as the Unified Theory of Acceptance and Use of Technology (UTAUT-2) (Venkatesh et al, 2003(Venkatesh et al, , 2012, which associates chronological age (and gender) with (non)intention to use DT. Recent studies, however, emphasize the complexity of the use and adoption of DT by older persons (Greenhalgh et al, 2017;Heerink et al, 2010;Lee & Coughlin, 2015;Peek et al, 2014) and suggest that ageism might have an influencing role in the use and acceptance of DT (Choi et al, 2020;Chu et al, 2022;Köttl et al, 2022;Mannheim et al, 2021;Mariano et al, 2020;Rosales & Fernández-Ardèvol, 2020).…”

Ageism in healthcare technology: the older patients’ aspirations for improved online accessibility

“… 16 Experiencing such a form of ageism leads to lower use of the internet and digital platforms for medical care. 17 , 18 Providers have been shown to play a significant role in alleviating anxiety related to portals use and increased compliance when encouraged as such. 19 Addressing the anxiety barrier attributed to new technology must be tackled by healthcare systems through development of age-appropriate educational material addressing their concerns and technical support available.…”