Smart home technology to support older people's quality of life: A longitudinal pilot study

Abstract

Aim This pilot study aimed to explore the impact of Smart Home technology to support older people’s quality of life, particularly for those who live alone. Background There has been an increased interest in using innovative technologies and artificial intelligence to enable Smart Home technology to support older people to age independently in their own homes. Methods This study used a pre‐and post‐test design. The seven item Personal Wellbeing Index was used to measure participants’ subjective quality of life across seven quality of life domains. Participants (n = 60) aged between 68 and 90 years (M = 80.10, SD = 5.56) completed a 12‐week personalised Smart Home technology program. Results Approximately half of the participants lived alone (48.3%). Participants’ quality of life significantly increased (p = 0.010) after Smart Home use. Two domains, “achieving in life” (p = 0.026) and “future security” (p = 0.004), were also significantly improved after participating in the Smart Home technology program. Improvements in quality of life did not vary as a function of living arrangement (all ps > .152, all ηp2 > .00). Conclusion The current study provides preliminary evidence for the role of Smart Home technology in supporting older people’s quality of life, particularly their sense of achieving in life and future security.

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“…Studies investigating monitoring technologies have demonstrated the benefits of home sensors in prolonging independent living for older adults (Facchinetti et al 2023, Aggar et al 2023). In the present case study, the NoKs' reported that the use of the Howz sensors allowed for the independence and privacy of their ageing parent while maintaining a family support system.…”

Research priorities in HIV, aging and rehabilitation: building on a framework with the Canada-International HIV and Rehabilitation Research Collaborative

“…Technology has been used widely for education, accessing health and rehabilitation services, and implementing interventions in the context of HIV; this includes smartphone and app technology to facilitate engagement in care, medication adherence, neurocognitive assessment, and exercise [ 26 – 29 ], virtual driving test platforms to assess the ability to drive among persons with HIV and neurocognitive impairment [ 30 ], and tele-health exercise interventions with adults aging with HIV [ 20 , 31 , 32 ]. Artificial intelligence also is used with older adults for remote patient monitoring and smart home technology [ 33 – 35 ], assessment of mobility with mobility disorders [ 36 , 37 ] or dementia [ 38 ], as well as facilitating rehabilitation assessment and treatment in order adults [ 39 ]. Nevertheless, stakeholders in this consultation highlighted that online forms of rehabilitation were not a one-size-fits-all, and not always a replacement for in-person interventions.…”

Impact of a culturally adapted digital literacy intervention on older people and its relationship with health literacy, quality of life, and well-being

“…These programs can improve the quality of life of participating seniors by enabling them to access online services, such as shopping, virtual healthcare, government paperwork, and banking services ( Mirmohammadkhani et al, 2020 ; Aggar et al, 2023 ), which can be significantly important depending on the mobility and self-esteem difficulties they suffer. Otherwise, it also improves physical health ( Ghorbanian and Nikou, 2021 ; Shi et al, 2021 ; Sobral and Sobral, 2021 ; Sriwisathiyakun and Dhamanitayakul, 2022 ), favors active aging, finding that highly digital seniors have a better healthy life ( Mizrachi et al, 2020 ), along with decreasing the negative effects of aging on health such as memory decline ( Chan et al, 2016 ; ChePa et al, 2023 ) for example.…”

“…Considering the definition of subjective well-being as people’s evaluations of their own life, which can be judgments, such as life satisfaction (cognitive), feeling-based evaluations, including moods and emotions (emotional) ( Pavot and Diener, 1993 ; Diener and Suh, 1997 ); regarding these components of psychosocial health of older people, digital skills deficits and poor understanding of health messages are related to adverse effects on well-being ( Stormacq et al, 2020 ). Generally, OP who master new technologies have a good level of psychological well-being due to the feeling generated by being able to achieve it, which helps to improve their position in the eyes of their family and even in society ( Hasan and Linger, 2016 ; Cardozo et al, 2017 ; Shi et al, 2021 ; Sobral and Sobral, 2021 ; Sriwisathiyakun and Dhamanitayakul, 2022 ; Aggar et al, 2023 ), in contrast, the secondary outcomes of Ngiam et al (2022) included improvements, however, they were not statistically significant in the personal well-being score ( Ngiam et al, 2022 ). In turn, Hasan and Linger (2016) report that the increase in digital skills increases social well-being in the dimensions of social participation and involvement, occupation, control over daily life and dignity.…”