Advancing the Aging and Technology Agenda in Gerontology
Open accessAbstract
Interest in technology for older adults is driven by multiple converging trends: the rapid pace of technological development; the unprecedented growth of the aging population in the United States and worldwide; the increase in the number and survival of persons with disability; the growing and unsustainable costs of caring for the elderly people; and the increasing interest on the part of business, industry, and government agencies in addressing health care needs with technology. These trends have contributed to the strong conviction that technology can play an important role in enhancing quality of life and independence of older individuals with high levels of efficiency, potentially reducing individual and societal costs of caring for the elderly people. The purpose of this "Forum" position article is to integrate what we know about older adults and technology systems in order to provide direction to this vital enterprise. We define what we mean by technology for an aging population, provide a brief history of its development, introduce a taxonomy for characterizing current technology applications to older adults, summarize research in this area, describe existing development and evaluation processes, identify factors important for the acceptance of technology among older individuals, and recommend future directions for research in this area.
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PCs raised concerns that the data collected might be stored for a long time and be accessible and misused by other actors (eg, insurance companies).
“PCs raised concerns that the data collected might be stored for a long time and be accessible and misused by other actors (eg, insurance companies) [13].”
From Perceptions About Technologies That Help Community-Dwelling Older Adults Remain at Home: Qualitative Study (2020) · cites this paper as [13]
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- Authors
- Schulz, R., Wahl, H.-W., Matthews, J. T., De Vito Dabbs, A., Beach, S. R., & Czaja, S. J.
- Affiliations
- University of Pittsburgh (US)
- Heidelberg University (DE)
- University of Miami (US)
- Corresponding author
- Schulz, Richard
- Venue
- The Gerontologist
- Publisher
- Oxford University Press (OUP)
- Published
- 2014-08-27
- Volume
- 55
- Issue
- 5
- Pages
- 724-734
- ISSN
- 0016-9013 (ISSN-L)
- 1758-5341
- PMC
- PMC4592332
- OpenAlex
- W2029640771
- Cited by
- 449
- References
- 54
- Citations by year
- 2026: 40 · 2025: 41 · 2024: 25 · 2023: 37 · 2022: 41 · 2021: 46 · 2020: 64 · 2019: 56 · 2018: 37 · 2017: 30 · 2016: 16 · 2015: 15
- FWCI
- 56.04
- Type
- journal article
- Language
- en
- Open access
- bronze
- doi.org
- Locations
- The Gerontologist (publishedVersion)
- Europe PMC (PubMed Central) (publishedVersion)
- PubMed Central (publishedVersion)
- PubMed (publishedVersion)
- Funders
- National Science Foundation (0540865)
- National Institutes of Health (0540865)
- National Institute on Aging (P01AG017211, P30AG024827)
- National Institute of Nursing Research (K01NR009385, R21NR013450, R01NR010711, R01NR014434)
- Topics
- Social Sciences › Demography › Technology Use by Older Adults
- Social Sciences › Psychology › Neuropsychology and Physiological Psychology › Aging and Gerontology Research
- Health Sciences › Health Professions › Occupational Therapy › Assistive Technology in Communication and Mobility
- Keywords
- technology for older adults, population aging, assistive technology, older adults, technology acceptance, technology taxonomy, quality of life, elderly independence, care costs
- MeSH terms
- Aged, Aging, Geriatrics, Persons with Disabilities, Health Promotion, Health Services Needs and Demand, Humans, Life Expectancy, Quality of Life, Technology, United States
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