Technology anxiety and technology enthusiasm vs digital ageism

Abstract

Purpose Europe has called attention to the importance of e-inclusion of older adults. Society is indicating that the developers, websites and devices are causing age bias in technology. This affects living independently, the values of ethical principles associated with an older person, and digital ageism: which is age-related bias in artificial intelligence systems (AI). This research attempts to investigate the association between digital ageism (measured by digital social participation (DSP), age, cognitive function, gender, health), technology anxiety and enthusiasm, and assistive technology devices during the period 2019-2021. The assistive technology device that we will investigate in this study is the adoption of a service that is designed for online health consultations. Method The participants are part of the longitudinal Swedish National Study on Aging and Care (SNAC). Technology anxiety and technology enthusiasm are two factors, which aim to measure technophilia (vs technophobia) in older adults. The age range is 63 -99 years of age in 2019 T1 and 66 -101 in 2021 T2. Wilcoxon rank test was conducted to investigate technology enthusiasm, technology anxiety and how they changed with time. An Edwards Nunnally index was then calculated for both variables to observe significant change in score from T1 to T2. Mann Whitney U test was used to investigate the variables sex and health status with technology anxiety & technology enthusiasm in T1 & T2. Age, Cognitive function MMSE, digital social participation were investigated through a Kruskall-Wallis test. A logistic regression was conducted with the significant variables. Results and Discussion Between 2019-2021, change in technology enthusiasm was based on less DSP (OR: 0.608; CI 95%: 0.476-0.792). Technology anxiety was significantly higher due to age (OR: 1.086, CI 95%: 1.035-1.139) and less DSP (OR: 0.684; CI95%: 0.522-0.895). The want for online healthcare consultations was popular but usage low.