How Smart Is Too Smart: Older Adults’ Attitudes Toward Smart Home Technologies That Support Actively Aging at Home

Elif Tural (Virginia Tech)
Austin Cole (Virginia Tech)
Danni Lu (Virginia Tech)

As smart technologies are becoming more embedded in residential environments, there is an increasing research and industry focus on such technologies as a way of supporting older adults’ health and wellbeing. So far, research in smart technologies has largely focused on issues such as client monitoring, emergency response, fall detection, and medication management, with less emphasis on how technologies can provide opportunities for active living, by increasing physical activity and reducing sedentariness. By adopting the definition of active aging as integration of any physical activity into daily routines (Sallis, et al, 2006), the aim of this paper is to investigate older adults’ intention to use and attitudes toward currently available smart home technologies that could contribute to active lifestyles in and around home. Utilizing the Technology Acceptance Model (TAM) framework, this paper presents the results of a mixed methods study comprised of online and in-person surveys (n=118), and a focus group of community-dwelling older adults, aged 50+ (n=14). The focus of this study isfactors influencing attitudes and intentions to use four representative smart home technologies for active living, based on the AbleData database product categories: smart environmental controls, smart lighting, smart locks, and smart home systems/home automation. Ordinal regression analyses of the survey data examine perceived usefulness, perceived affordability, and ease of use as predictors of attitude, controlling for external variables, including demographics, tech savviness, health and physical activity levels of participants. In line with previous research, the focus group findings underscore safety concerns and affordability as significant determinants of positive or negative attitudes toward the smart design products. The study has implications of residential designers by providing guidelines on how to prioritize smart home technology integrations to their designs.