Ambient assisted living: towards a model of technology adoption and use among elderly users

Abstract

Ambient Assisted Living (AAL) technologies offer a promising perspective on autonomous aging in place. This is in the interest of the older adults themselves, overburdened caregivers and policy makers who try to control health care budgets in the face of the ever growing older population. However, these technologies are still in their infancy and little is known whether the older adults are ready to adopt and use them. So far, most research efforts are of exploratory nature. While they identify factors which are important for the adoption and use of AAL technologies, only a few attempt to test and quantify the underlying relations between these factors. Furthermore, many studies focus on a pre-adoption stage (a technology has not been used yet) and do not consider post-adoption (users have used and experienced a technology). This dissertation seeks to fill this gap by constructing a model which tests the underlying relations between the various influencing factors across both pre-adoption and post-adoption stages.