JMIR Publications

ABSTRACT

Background:

In the last decades, the family system has significantly changed. While in the past older people used to live with their children, nowadays, they cannot always reckon up the assistance of their relatives. Many older people wish to remain as independent as possible while remaining in their homes, even when living alone. To do so, there are many tasks that they must perform to maintain their independence in everyday life, and above all their well-being. Information and Communications Technology (ICT), particularly robotics and domotics, could play a pivotal role in ageing, especially in contemporary society, where relatives are not always able to correctly and constantly assist the older person.

Objective:

The aim of this study was to understand the needs, wants, preferences and representations on ICT of some pre-frail older people who live alone. In particular, we wanted to explore their attitude toward a hypothetical caregiver robot and the functions they would ask for.

Methods:

Accordingly, we designed a qualitative study based on an Interpretative Phenomenological Approach (IPA). Fifty potential participants were purposively recruited in a big town in Northern Italy, and were administered the Fried scale (to assess the participants frailty) and the Mini-Mental State (to evaluate the older person’s capacity of comprehension of the interview questions). A group of older people who were not frail (although needed some human assistance) and lived alone, was thus selected to take part in the study. In total, 25 pre-frail older people participated in an individual semi-structured interview, lasting approximately 45’. Three researchers independently analyzed the interviews transcripts, identifying meaning units, which were later grouped in categories, and finally in macro-categories. Constant triangulation among researchers and their reflective attitude assured trustiness.

Results:

From this study it emerged that a number of interviewees who were currently using ICT (i.e. smartphone) did not own a computer in the past, and/or did not receive higher education, and/or were not “young” older people. Furthermore, we found that among the older people who described their relationship with ICT as negative, many used it in everyday life. Referring to robotics, the interviewees appeared quite open-minded. In particular, robots were considered suitable for housekeeping, for monitoring older people’s health and accidental falls, and for entertainment.

Conclusions:

Older people’s use and attitudes toward ICT does not always seem to be related to previous experiences with technological devices, higher education, or “lower” age. Furthermore, many participants in this study were able to use ICT, even if they did not always acknowledge it. Besides, many interviewees appeared to be open-minded towards technological devices, even towards robots. Therefore, proposing new advanced technology to a group of pre-frail people, who are self-sufficient and can live alone at home, seems to be feasible.