The Unacceptance of a Self-Management Health System by Healthy Older Adults

摘要

Self-Management Health Systems (SMHS) are defined as systems that combine data logging via multiple sensors and/or self-reports, possibly enhanced with risk assessment and decision support. Research on SMHS is booming, particularly as it is envisioned to support ageing in place for an increasingly greying population. However, findings on what drives adoption of SMHS by healthy older adults is still lacking. Therefore, an SMHS was tested for two weeks in a real world setting by 16 healthy participants aged 65+. We measured acceptance towards the SMHS pre and post, combined with qualitative data, and usage logs. Results indicate that at the start of the study, older adults perceived the system as easy to use, useful, and that participants had access to supporting infrastructure. Notwithstanding, behavioural intention to use an SMHS was rather low. Post usage, our findings show that, while perceived ease of use and confidence increased, perceived usefulness and behavioural intention further decreased. These findings suggest that older adults are not yet ready to adopt SMHS, and that design efforts should particularly be geared towards increasing perceived usefulness.