Older adults' attitudes towards and perceptions of ‘smart home’ technologies: a pilot study

TLDR

The study explores older adults’ perceptions and expectations of smart‑home technologies aimed at improving quality of life and monitoring health. Three focus‑group sessions with 15 seniors were conducted and content‑analysis identified themes of device usefulness for fall prevention, sensory assistance, mobility, isolation reduction, medication management, and physiological monitoring. Participants reported benefits such as emergency assistance, fall detection, and physiological monitoring, but raised concerns about usability, absence of human response, and the need for tailored training, yet overall maintained a positive attitude toward home‑installed devices.

Abstract

The study aim is to explore the perceptions and expectations of seniors in regard to "smart home" technology installed and operated in their homes with the purpose of improving their quality of life and/or monitoring their health status.Three focus group sessions were conducted within this pilot study to assess older adults' perceptions of the technology and ways they believe technology can improve their daily lives. Themes discussed in these groups included participants' perceptions of the usefulness of devices and sensors in health-related issues such as preventing or detecting falls, assisting with visual or hearing impairments, improving mobility, reducing isolation, managing medications, and monitoring of physiological parameters. The audiotapes were transcribed and a content analysis was performed.A total of 15 older adults participated in three focus group sessions. Areas where advanced technologies would benefit older adult residents included emergency help, prevention and detection of falls, monitoring of physiological parameters, etc. Concerns were expressed about the user-friendliness of the devices, lack of human response and the need for training tailored to older learners.All participants had an overall positive attitude towards devices and sensors that can be installed in their homes in order to enhance their lives.