Adoption of assistive technologies for aged care: A realist review of recent studies

Abstract

Objective: The main objective of this study is to identify the technologies that have recently been applied in aged care, the problems that these technologies have sought to address and the adoption approaches that have been taken. Method: This paper has conducted a realist review on studies published in information systems and medical informatics journals in the past five years on adoption of assistive technologies among seniors. Results: We have identified potential technologies that have been utilized to address seniors' daily life difficulties in three areas: independent living, social isolation, dementia and medication taking. We have also extracted the theoretical lenses used for studying the adoption of these technologies and available empirical evidences for the theories. Conclusion: Having put the findings of this review together, we have identified factors impacting adoption of technologies among elderly. These have been classified as factors related to technologies, allocated tasks, individuals and social influences. © 2014 IEEE.