Ambient Awareness to Strengthen the Family Social Network of Older Adults

Social networking sites (SNSs) provide ambient awareness of the interests and activities of friends and relatives helping them sustain and strengthen their social ties. Older adults who are not adopting SNSs might however feel like outsiders within their own families who increasingly rely on these services to socialize. Previous research has shown that situated displays can provide appropriate interfaces for older adults to use digital services. In this paper we explore how situated displays can intuitively provide ambient awareness to strengthen the family social network of older adults. We designed and developed Tlatoque, a situated display, to seamlessly integrate older adults into the SNS used by their relatives. The results of a 21-week deployment study of an initial version of Tlatoque in one extended family showed that the older adult became more conscious of relatives’ activities, which also enriched in-person encounters. However, relatives expected the older adult to reply to their posts in the SNS and Tlatoque lacked mechanisms for the older adult to provide feedback. We re-designed Tlatoque to incorporate means for enabling the older adult to share information back to the SNS. We conducted a second 21-week deployment study with another extended family to evaluate the use of this new version of the system. Our results indicate that the second design was successful in providing ambient awareness to the older adult as well as to her relatives. We conclude that situated displays that provide SNS services can assist the integration of older adults to their social network and contribute to enhance asymmetric relations between the older adult and younger relatives.     

The impact of University of the Third Age courses on ICT adoption

Information and communication technologies (ICT) are widely reported to increase older adults’ quality of life, although their use is limited among the older cohorts. This study analyzed the effects of education on ICT adoption by focusing on the impact of older adult education. Relying on a survey of 135 Italian seniors, we found that, in addition to the positive effect of formal education, seniors taking part in University of the Third Age (U3A) courses had higher ICT use. Specifically, ICT adoption increased by 18.5% for high school graduates and up to 39% for those who completed a primary school diploma.     

Forum Theatre as a requirements gathering methodology in the design of a home telecommunication system for older adults

The ability to elicit requirements in the design of new technology has proved to be particularly problematic with older generations of users who have not grown up with the same level of familiarity and understanding of present day user interfaces as younger generations have. It is also widely acknowledged that older people are poorly represented in the development process of mainstream technology. In this paper, we critically examine how 'Forum Theatre' can be used as a requirements gathering methodology in the development of a novel digital television (DTV) based communication system. We demonstrate how live theatre established a 'common ground' between audience participants and actors in the facilitation of new ideas, and discuss how live theatre can be used to stimulate interest and understanding from designers and relevant professionals in the development of an unfamiliar and largely undefined technology for older adults.     

A Smart Room to Promote Autonomy of Disabled People due to Stroke

A cerebral vascular accident, known as common language stroke, is one of the main causes of mortality and remains the primary cause of acquired disabilities in adults. Those disabled people spend most of their time at home in their living rooms. In most cases, appliances of a living room (TV, light, cooler/heater, window blinds, etc.) are generally controlled by direct manipulation of a set of remote controls. Handling many remote controls can be disturbing and inappropriate for these people. In addition, in many cases these people could be alone at home and must open the door for visitors after their identification by either moving to the door or using an intercom system which requires in both cases a physical activity. Furthermore, these people need a continuous health monitoring especially blood pressure to avoid a recurrent stroke. Smart spaces and assisted technologies would be beneficial to assist person with disabilities to live independently, enhance their quality of life and empower their autonomy. A complete system which improves and facilitates the daily life and covers all aspects such as appliances automation, appropriate interaction mode and health monitoring of these people is still lacking. The aim of this work is to create a safe and high-quality living environment for persons with disabilities to enable them to live more independently by automating the operation of a living room appliances according to the current context without the need to use remote control devices, the use of a suitable interaction modality with appliances that require direct interaction and a remote health monitoring system which can alert relatives and caregivers in case of an emergency.     

Internet Technology and Social Capital:How the Internet Affects Seniors’ Social Capital and Wellbeing

Although it is increasingly obvious that the Internet is changing human life; the details of this change are not yet clear. A major debate in current literature involves the capacity of the Internet to enhance social capital and wellbeing in old age. In this regard, the present study attempts to investigate the relationships between Internet use and older people’s social capital and wellbeing. An online survey was conducted at the University of Sydney. 222 seniors responded to the survey. The measures used included a wide range of instruments related to the Internet use, social capital and wellbeing. Respondents used the Internet for various purposes, including seeking information, entertainment, commerce, communication, and finding new people. The main findings of the study were that the relationships between Internet use, social capital and wellbeing is a complex construct and the Internet has different effects on social capital and wellbeing resulting from different use of this technology. The study results revealed that the Internet is a 2‐edged sword with the ability to both harm and help. According to the findings of this study, using the Internet can be helpful for older adults if they are aware how they use it.     

基于技术接受模型的老年人门户设计与实现

针对现有互联网应用更多侧重于青少年而面向老年人特别是中国老年人的研究相对较少、已有老年人互联网应用实践均将老年人作为一个孤立群体看待的问题, 根据中国老年人的特点提出了老年人门户概念, 基于技术接受模型设计了老年人门户, 并进行了门户研发实践。老年人门户不仅为老年人提供信息、产品、交流、娱乐等互联网服务, 还提供老人定位防丢失等多种应用服务。在老年人门户中, 老年人的角色不仅是用品和服务的接受者, 同时是可以发挥主观能动性的服务提供者。实践结果证明, 老年人门户解决了现有老年人网站存在的孤岛问题, 架起了老年人与家庭、社区、社会相联系的桥梁, 可有效提高老年人的幸福指数。未来, 基于老年人门户的老年人数据挖掘和智能分析结果对于老年学研究、政府决策、非政府组织和企业发展均具有重要的意义。     

Narrowing the age-based digital divide: Developing digital capability through social activities

Healthcare information technologies (HIT) have shown great potential for improving the effectiveness and quality of healthcare services. However, the inequal ability of older adults to use HIT may limit their exploitation of these benefits. To narrow the age-based “digital divide”, this research further develops the concept of digital capability and emphasises the link between older adults and their social context. Based on a qualitative inductive study of 33 participants, who included Chinese patients and their family members, we generate a novel theoretical model for understanding the process by which social activities may shape older adults' digital capabilities. Based on the model, we suggest two strategies that might encourage older adults to engage with HIT. This research contributes to the information systems (IS) literature by strengthening digital capability as a conceptual lens to investigate individuals' engagement with information communication technologies (ICTs). It also extends research on the social context for ICT use by revealing how social processes at multiple levels influence digital capability development. Finally, this study offers practical implications for governments and private sectors to encourage and promote ICT use by older adults.     

Evaluating a cross-cultural children’s online book community: Lessons learned for sociability,usability, and cultural exchange

The use of computers for human-to-human communication among adults has been studied for many years, but using computer technology to enable children from all over the world to talk to each other has rarely been discussed by researchers. The goal of our research is to fill this gap and explore the design and evaluation of children’s cross-language online communities via a case study of the International Children’s Digital Library Communities (ICDLCommunities). This project supports the development of communities for children (ages 7–11) that form around the International Digital Children’s Library (ICDL) book collection. In this community the children can learn about each others’ cultures and make friends even if they do not speak the same language. They can also read and create stories and ask and answer questions about these. From this evaluation study we learned that: (i) children are very interested in their counterparts in other countries and a remarkable amount of communication takes place even when they do not share a common language; (ii) representing their identity online in many different forms is particularly important to children when communicating in an online community; (iii) children enjoy drawing but representing stories in a sequence of diagrams is challenging and needs support; and (iv) asking and answering questions without language is possible using graphical templates. In this paper we present our findings and make recommendations for designing children’s cross-cultural online communities.     

Multimodal Connectedness and Quality of Life: Examining the Influences of Technology Adoption and Interpersonal Communication on Well‐Being Across the Life Span

This study examined the relationship between the number of communication technologies used for social interactions (i.e., multimodal connectedness) and well‐being across the lifespan. Consistent with the assumptions of media multiplexity, multimodal connectedness and frequency of strong‐tie communication enhanced well‐being, but only for older‐age cohorts (35–54 and 55–70+). For young adults (18–34), multimodal connectedness and frequency of weak‐tie communication diminished well‐being. The findings are framed in terms of differing motives for maintaining social relations across the lifespan, as maintenance of relationships with strong ties become more important and the number of weak ties contract as people age.     

A step toward a human-robot cooperative system

In the near future, we will have to live with many machines such as home robots, hospital robots, and so on. User-friendly communication between humans and those machines is very important for a cooperative system utilizing their features and abilities. As an example of a human-robot cooperative system, we propose an intuitive approach to robot teaching with multimedia tools.     

Internet use intention and adoption among Chinese older adults: From the expanded technology acceptance model perspective

The purpose of this paper is to discuss how various factors intertwine to affect Chinese older adults’ decisions to adopt the Internet by applying the expanded technology acceptance model (TAM). Perceived usefulness (PU), perceived ease of use (PEU), subjective norm (SN), and facilitating conditions (FC) were four key predictors. Gender and age were included in the proposed model as factors to moderate the effect of two key TAM components (PU and PEU) on adoption behaviors. The results indicate that PU, PEU, and SN were significant predictors of Internet adoption among Chinese older adults, while PU, SN, and FC were significant predictors of Internet use intention. The effect of PEU on Internet use intention was also found to be stronger for older seniors than younger seniors. Implications for future research and practices are discussed.     

Older adults’ perceptions and experiences of online social support

This paper reports an investigation of older adults’ needs and preferences concerning online social support. We focused our analysis on seven different aspects of online support: Self disclosure, Deep support, Light support, Community building, Information/Facts, Off topic, and Technical issues. For each aspect we were interested in how older adults perceive this aspect of support, what they think are the similarities and differences of this aspect of support in online settings vs offline settings, and what they perceive are the advantages and disadvantages of communicating this aspect of support online. We did this by conducting detailed interviews with three groups of older adults (31 people in total) with different levels of expertise in using the internet and online communication (older adults who do not use the internet, older adults who use only email, and older adults who participate in online support communities). Interviews were transcribed verbatim and analyzed. Our findings describe older adults’ perception of different aspects of support and identify their motivation for turning to online support and the reasons for any reluctance to do so. Thus, our findings give insight into how online support communities could best be utilized to improve older people’s experience with online support.     

Enriching in-person encounters through social media: A study on family connectedness for the elderly

Social media sites have become immensely popular. In 2010 it was estimated that Americans spent a quarter of their online time using social networking sites (SNSs) and blogs. Prior studies have shown how people spend more time socializing through digital communication services such as SNSs reducing face-to-face interaction. Individuals limited offline interactions cause a sense of self-perception of being less socially involved. In this paper we explore how the use of an ubiquitous system we developed, Tlatoque, is able to adapt and move the SNS's social capital outside the desktop into a domestic setting to support older adults' offline interactions with their family. The findings of a 21 week deployment study uncovered the offline practices surrounding the use of Tlatoque and its social implications toward the existing family ties (n=30). Results qualitatively indicate that the content shared in SNSs strengthens older adults' social network by enriching and complementing traditional social engagements such as those conducted over the phone or in-person.     

The impact of technology on older adults’ social isolation

Research indicates that social isolation and loneliness have a negative effect on health and wellbeing among older people. Various technology-based interventions have been offered to reduce social isolation; however, research demonstrating the role of various types of technologies and their effectiveness in dealing with social isolation among seniors is scarce. This study undertakes a systematic literature review of empirical studies on various types of technologies and their effectiveness in alleviating social isolation among seniors. Relevant electronic databases were searched and through 6886 initial set of studies published from 2000 to 2015 we have found eight different technologies that have been applied to alleviate social isolation, namely, general ICT, video game, robotics, personal reminder information and social management system, asynchronous peer support chat room, social network sites, Telecare and 3D virtual environment. We further evaluated the effectiveness of the technologies with social isolation among seniors. Findings show that technologies can be used to reduce social isolation among seniors. However, more studies are needed to evaluate the effectiveness of new technologies.     

Acceptance of Health-Related ICT among Elderly People Living in the Community: A Systematic Review of Qualitative Evidence

There are a growing number of seniors and a growing need for health-related ICT (Information and Communication Technology) solutions to allow seniors to live independently in their own homes and communities. We need to have a better understanding of how and why seniors use or do not use health-related ICT in such settings so we can improve our solutions. In order to synthesize existing knowledge, we did a systematic literature review using Scopus and PubMed. We searched for both review articles and primary qualitative studies. Eleven review articles and 31 primary research articles were included in the study. We structured our findings using the UTAUT2 acceptance model developed by Venkatesh et al. Our findings show that seniors want health-related ICT that gives them independence, safety, and security, allows them to socialize and manage their own health, and helps them in their daily activities. They need to easily get help if they have problems using services, get tailored training, and get help during use. Lack of privacy and safety and stigma are some of the reported barriers. Health-related ICT at home is different than both consumer and institutional ICT. We need more research in order to develop a specialized and operationalized acceptance model for health-related ICT use among seniors. Our mapping to UTAUT2 is a step in this direction and suggests a possible specialization of this model.     

‘It''s just like you talk to a friend’ relational agents for older adults

Relational agents—computational artifacts designed to build and maintain long-term social–emotional relationships with users—may provide an effective interface modality for older adults. This is especially true when the agents use simulated face-to-face conversation as the primary communication medium, and for applications in which repeated interactions over long time periods are required, such as in health behavior change. In this article, we discuss the design of a relational agent for older adults that plays the role of an exercise advisor, and report on the results of a longitudinal study involving 21 adults aged 62–84, half of whom interacted with the agent daily for 2 months in their homes and half who served as a standard-of-care control. Results indicate the agent was accepted and liked, and was significantly more efficacious at increasing physical activity (daily steps walked) than the control.     

Computer communication as an aid to independence for older adults

Abstract

Computer and communication technologies offer the potential of improving die quality of life for older people by providing them with links to information and services outside of the home. This study examined die feasibility of older people using an electronic text message system to perform routine communication tasks. In addition information was gathered to identify design parameters which facilitate the interactions of older people with such computer based systems. A specialized and simplified ‘communication computer’ was placed in the homes of 36 older women, aged 50–95 years. The system was provided with: a simple text-editor, basic electronic mail functions and access to news/ weather, movie reviews, and health information. Both performance data and user preference data were collected. Results indicated that the participants liked using the system, were able to use it with minimal difficulty, and that it provided a valuable means for social interaction and mental stimulation. The findings suggest that computer-based systems can be a valuable support tool for older adults if they are easy to use, and provide applications that are useful for them.     

Doctor–patient relationship strength’s impact in an online healthcare community

ABSTRACT

Doctor–patient (D–P) interaction currently faces a set of challenges owing to a dearth in medical resources and related communication reasons. Healthcare information technology and associated systems, such as those supporting online healthcare communities (OHCs) that provide new platforms for information exchange and online communication, are expected to alter traditional D–P relationship models. Despite significant results from extant research indicating patient benefits, empirical research on OHC returns for physicians is lacking. This exploratory study examines the strength of the D–P relationship and its impacts on physicians’ individual outcomes in an OHC. Guided by the social capital and social ties theories, and using a structural equation modeling (SEM) approach to study 339,010 instances of doctor–patient communication from 1430 physicians at The Good Doctor (www.Haodf.com), which is one of the largest Chinese OHCs, we found that weak ties can result in economic and social returns for doctors. However, further analysis has indicated that strong ties mediate the effect of weak ties, thus encouraging doctors to convert weak ties into strong ties by mobilizing their website settings to strengthen their relationships and, subsequently, to be better rewarded. Implications for research and practice on the development of healthcare information technology and associated systems are discussed.     

Obstacles to social networking website use among older adults

Social networking websites (SNSs) have become popular among younger adults, but internet-using older adults have not adopted this communication medium nearly as quickly ( and ). This study seeks to understand what factors encourage or discourage older adults from using SNS, like Facebook, to help understand what may be done to ensure both generations have communication media over which they enjoy and feel comfortable communicating. Using the Technology Acceptance Model (TAM;  and ) as a framework, 124 internet-using older adults aged 60–90, completed attitudinal measures of perceived usefulness of SNS, perceived ease of use of websites, social pressures to use SNS, and trust in SNS, as well as behavioral measures of current internet use, SNS use, and intention to use SNS in the future. Regression analyses revealed significant predictors of SNS include perceived usefulness, trust in SNS, and frequency of internet use. Unexpectedly, factors of ease of use and social pressures were not significant predictors. Implications for the TAM and for individuals with an interest in getting older adults to use SNS are discussed.     

Computer communication as an aid to independence for older adults

Computer and communication technologies offer the potential of improving die quality of life for older people by providing them with links to information and services outside of the home. This study examined die feasibility of older people using an electronic text message system to perform routine communication tasks. In addition information was gathered to identify design parameters which facilitate the interactions of older people with such computer based systems. A specialized and simplified 'communication computer' was placed in the homes of 36 older women, aged 50-95 years. The system was provided with: a simple text-editor, basic electronic mail functions and access to news/ weather, movie reviews, and health information. Both performance data and user preference data were collected. Results indicated that the participants liked using the system, were able to use it with minimal difficulty, and that it provided a valuable means for social interaction and mental stimulation. The findings suggest that computer-based systems can be a valuable support tool for older adults if they are easy to use, and provide applications that are useful for them.