Older People’s Needs and Opportunities
for Assistive Technologies
Jeffrey Soar, Lei Yu
(&) , and Latif Al-Hakim
University of Southern Queensland, Toowoomba, QLD 4350, Australia
{Jeffrey.Soar,Latif.Al-Hakim}@usq.edu.au,
Yulei19900803@gmail.com
Abstract. Older adults experience a disconnect between their needs and
adoption of technologies that have potential to assist and to support more
independent living. This paper reviewed research that links people’s needs with
opportunities for assistive technologies. It searched 13 databases identifying 923
papers with 34 papers finally included for detailed analysis. The research papers
identified needs in the fields of health, leisure, living, safety, communication,
family relationship and social involvement. Amongst these, support for activities
of daily living category was of most interest. In specific sub-categories, the next
most reported need was assistive technology to support walking and mobility
followed by smart cooking/kitchen technology and assistive technology for
social contacts with family member/other people. The research aimed to inform
a program of research into improving the adoption of technologies where they
can ameliorate identified needs of older people.
Keywords: Older people Á Needs Á Assistive technologies Á Systematic review
1 Introduction
Global life expectancy rose from 64.2 years in 1990 to 72.6 years in 2019 [1]. There is
increasing interest in and availability of support for people choosing to remain in their
own homes and delay or avoid moving to institutional care, with an increasing need to
improve access to services at home in health management, rehabilitation nursing and
entertainment [2]. This research aimed to identify the state of matching needs with
technologies focusing on support in the home environment to support independence in
everyday activities. Important technology features include ease of use, security, safety,
reliability and use independency as important factors in adoption of assistive technology [3]. There is a need for greater awareness of what smart home and assistive
technologies are needed to guide technology developers as well as to increase the
understanding of potential users of what is available and how it might benefit them.
“Assistive technology” is an umbrella term referring to a range of specialized technology used by people to support activities of daily living and specific tasks [4]. It is about
the use of an array of electronic devices incorporated into everyday objects in order to
monitoring the user’s status and provide assistance as needed, including feedback,
guidance, alerts or warnings [5]. Assistive technology has evolved with and emerged
from information technology, passing from detecting and reporting problems, to assisting
© The Author(s) 2020
M. Jmaiel et al. (Eds.): ICOST 2020, LNCS 12157, pp. 404–414, 2020.
https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-51517-1_37
for Assistive Technologies
Jeffrey Soar, Lei Yu
(&) , and Latif Al-Hakim
University of Southern Queensland, Toowoomba, QLD 4350, Australia
{Jeffrey.Soar,Latif.Al-Hakim}@usq.edu.au,
Yulei19900803@gmail.com
Abstract. Older adults experience a disconnect between their needs and
adoption of technologies that have potential to assist and to support more
independent living. This paper reviewed research that links people’s needs with
opportunities for assistive technologies. It searched 13 databases identifying 923
papers with 34 papers finally included for detailed analysis. The research papers
identified needs in the fields of health, leisure, living, safety, communication,
family relationship and social involvement. Amongst these, support for activities
of daily living category was of most interest. In specific sub-categories, the next
most reported need was assistive technology to support walking and mobility
followed by smart cooking/kitchen technology and assistive technology for
social contacts with family member/other people. The research aimed to inform
a program of research into improving the adoption of technologies where they
can ameliorate identified needs of older people.
Keywords: Older people Á Needs Á Assistive technologies Á Systematic review
1 Introduction
Global life expectancy rose from 64.2 years in 1990 to 72.6 years in 2019 [1]. There is
increasing interest in and availability of support for people choosing to remain in their
own homes and delay or avoid moving to institutional care, with an increasing need to
improve access to services at home in health management, rehabilitation nursing and
entertainment [2]. This research aimed to identify the state of matching needs with
technologies focusing on support in the home environment to support independence in
everyday activities. Important technology features include ease of use, security, safety,
reliability and use independency as important factors in adoption of assistive technology [3]. There is a need for greater awareness of what smart home and assistive
technologies are needed to guide technology developers as well as to increase the
understanding of potential users of what is available and how it might benefit them.
“Assistive technology” is an umbrella term referring to a range of specialized technology used by people to support activities of daily living and specific tasks [4]. It is about
the use of an array of electronic devices incorporated into everyday objects in order to
monitoring the user’s status and provide assistance as needed, including feedback,
guidance, alerts or warnings [5]. Assistive technology has evolved with and emerged
from information technology, passing from detecting and reporting problems, to assisting
© The Author(s) 2020
M. Jmaiel et al. (Eds.): ICOST 2020, LNCS 12157, pp. 404–414, 2020.
https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-51517-1_37