Psychological Barriers to Digital Living in Older Adults: Computer Anxiety as Predictive Mechanism for Technophobia

Giacomo, Dina Di; Ranieri, Jessica; D’Amico, Meny; Guerra, Federica; Passafiume, Domenico

doi:10.3390/bs9090096

Cited by 73 publications

(57 citation statements)

References 25 publications

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“…Particularly, we wanted to investigate the adulthood application in the daily digital solutions in order to highlight the weakness and strengthens. Following our preview study (Di Giacomo et al, 2019), findings confirmed the rule of self-perception in digital application in order to exploit digital living benefits. Our study evidenced as the low digital skills in adulthood isn't associated to gender, aging or education variables; the computer anxiety in adulthood is related to the self-perception of own ability to use the technology autonomously.…”

Section: Discussionsupporting

confidence: 74%

Technophobia as emerging risk factor in aging: Investigation on computer anxiety dimension

et al. 2020

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Digital innovation changed the daily living impacting Quality of Life of individuals. Our study was focused on adult and elder behavioural approach to the technology. Out study aimed to investigate the impact of technology use in not digital native in order to investigate the behavioural degree of adaptation. An observational study was conducted on adult and old subjects (age range 50–67 years) measuring computer anxiety and technology use ability variables identifying the indexes for technophobia risk in digital living. Not digital native subjects and more older ones appeared being influenced by technophobia features because of feeling themselves as inadequate in the management of technology. Oneway ANOVA and then Bonferroni’s post-hoc analysis showed that non-autonomous (p<0.01), low-frequency (p<0.01), and feelingneed- for-help users (p<0.01) had higher levels of computer anxiety. No significant effect was in gender distribution. Finally, social networking seems related better use of technology and lower anxiety for digital solutions. Our findings highlight technophobia as a possible new risk factor for not digital native because it can affect their daily life through lower adherence to digital solutions; rather than aging successfully, they could develop fragile ageing. More, they seemed inadequate to use the digital solutions for better living in aging.

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Section: Discussionsupporting

confidence: 74%

Technophobia as emerging risk factor in aging: Investigation on computer anxiety dimension

et al. 2020

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“…Skills and access were not adjusted for in these studies, however, and our results suggest that they are of importance. For example, in Italy researchers found that a substantial proportion of those aged 50 years or older were not digitally skilled [ 28 ]. Because skills seem to be crucial for older people to benefit from online services, training should be provided for them [ 29 ].…”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Digital Divide in Perceived Benefits of Online Health Care and Social Welfare Services: National Cross-Sectional Survey Study

Heponiemi¹,

Jormanainen²,

Leemann³

et al. 2020

J Med Internet Res

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Background The number of online services in health care is increasing rapidly in developed countries. Users are expected to take a more skilled and active role in taking care of their health and prevention of ill health. This induces risks that users (especially those who need the services the most) will drop out of digital services, resulting in a digital divide or exclusion. To ensure wide and equal use of online services, all users must experience them as beneficial. Objective This study aimed to examine associations of (1) demographics (age, gender, and degree of urbanization), (2) self-rated health, (3) socioeconomic position (education, experienced financial hardship, labor market position, and living alone), (4) social participation (voting, satisfaction with relationships, and keeping in touch with friends and family members), and (5) access, skills, and extent of use of information and communication technologies (ICT) with perceived benefits of online health care and social welfare services. Associations were examined separately for perceived health, economic, and collaboration benefits. Methods We used a large random sample representative of the Finnish population including 4495 (56.77% women) respondents aged between 20 and 97 years. Analyses of covariance were used to examine the associations of independent variables with perceived benefits. Results Access to online services, ICT skills, and extent of use were associated with all examined benefits of online services. ICT skills seemed to be the most important factor. Poor self-rated health was also consistently associated with lower levels of perceived benefits. Similarly, those who were keeping in touch with their friends and relatives at least once a week perceived online services more often beneficial in all the examined dimensions. Those who had experienced financial hardship perceived fewer health and economic benefits than others. Those who were satisfied with their relationships reported higher levels of health and collaboration benefits compared with their counterparts. Also age, education, and degree of urbanization had some statistically significant associations with benefits but they seemed to be at least partly explained by differences in access, skills, and extent of use of online services. Conclusions According to our results, providing health care services online has the potential to reinforce existing social and health inequalities. Our findings suggest that access to online services, skills to use them, and extent of use play crucial roles in perceiving them as beneficial. Moreover, there is a risk of digital exclusion among those who are socioeconomically disadvantaged, in poor health, or socially isolated. In times when health and social services are increasingly offered online, this digital divide may predispose people with high needs for services to exclusion from them.

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Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…Some of the results defied the common perception that older individuals are apprehensive about technology [ 15 ]. Previous research in this area has shown that the ageing population feared technology and were less likely to use them [ 15 , 28 ]. Generally, the acceptance of new digital solutions and innovative technology by patients and carers relies on their anxieties and feelings of insecurity concerning the device/technology.…”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

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Digital personal assistants are smart ways for assistive technology to aid the health and wellbeing of patients and carers

Balasubramanian

Beaney

Chambers³

2021

BMC Geriatr

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Background Digital health solutions such as assistive technologies create significant opportunities to optimise the effectiveness of both health and social care delivery. Assistive technologies include ‘low-tech’ items, such as memory aids and digital calendars or ‘high-tech’ items, like health tracking devices and wearables. Depending on the type of assistive devices, they can be used to improve quality of life, effect lifestyle improvements and increase levels of independence. Acceptance of technology among patients and carers depends on various factors such as perceived skills and competencies in using the device, expectations, trust and reliability. This service evaluation explored the impact of a pilot service redesign focused on improving health and wellbeing by the use of a voice-activated device ‘smart speaker’, Alexa Echo Show 8. Methods A service evaluation/market research was conducted for a pilot service redesign programme. Data were collected via a survey in person or telephone and from two focus groups of patients (n = 44) and informal carers (n = 7). The age of the study participants ranged from 50 to 90 years. Also, the participants belonged to two types of cohort: one specifically focused on diabetes and the other on a range of long-term health conditions such as multiple sclerosis, dementia, depression and others. Results The device had a positive impact on the health and social well-being of the users; many direct and indirect benefits were identified. Both patients and carers had positive attitudes towards using the device. Self-reported benefits included: reminders for medications and appointments improved adherence and disease control; increased independence and productivity; and for those living alone, the device helped combat their loneliness and low mood. Conclusion The findings from the study help to realise the potential of assistive technology for empowering supporting health/social care. Especially, the season of COVID-19 pandemic has highlighted the need for remote management of health, the use of assistive technology could have a pivotal role to play with the sustainability of health/social care provision by promoting shared care between the care provider and service user. Further evaluation can explore the key drivers and barriers for implementing assistive technologies, especially in people who are ageing and with long-term health conditions.

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Psychological Barriers to Digital Living in Older Adults: Computer Anxiety as Predictive Mechanism for Technophobia

Cited by 73 publications

References 25 publications

Technophobia as emerging risk factor in aging: Investigation on computer anxiety dimension

Technophobia as emerging risk factor in aging: Investigation on computer anxiety dimension

Digital Divide in Perceived Benefits of Online Health Care and Social Welfare Services: National Cross-Sectional Survey Study

Digital personal assistants are smart ways for assistive technology to aid the health and wellbeing of patients and carers

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