scholarly journals Exploring Older Adults’ Perspective and Use of Smart Speaker-based Voice Assistants (Preprint)

2020 ◽  
Author(s):  
Sunyoung Kim
Keyword(s):  
Older Adults ◽  
Aging Population ◽  
Later Life ◽  
Data Sets ◽  
Interaction Patterns ◽  
Design Strategies ◽  
Structured Interviews ◽  
First Response ◽  
Usage Patterns ◽  
Axial Coding

BACKGROUND Smart speaker-based voice assistants promise support for the aging population with the advantages of a voice-based interaction modality to handle requests. However, little is known about its usability, user experience, and usefulness from the perspectives of older adults. OBJECTIVE This paper aims to understand how older adults perceive and respond to voice assistants when they first interact with it in order to better support the aging population with this emerging technology. The ultimate goal of this work is to provide insights into the design of a voice assistant that improve its usability and usefulness for older adults and more effectively meet their needs for quality of later life. METHODS We conducted semi-structured interviews with 18 people aged 74 years old and above who have never used a smart speaker before. Using thematic analysis, we analyzed the interview data to reveal patterns across data sets, through open coding, axial coding, and selective coding. RESULTS While the overall first response to a voice assistant among our participants was positive, they experienced a number of usability issues, such as difficulty in constructing a structured sentence and misperceptions about how a voice assistant operates, as they continued interacting with it. In addition, we identified prevalent usage patterns and perspectives that older adults would have when using a voice assistant. CONCLUSIONS Based on these findings, we suggest key design strategies to better leverage voice assistants to support the aging population, including helping older adults better understand how a voice assistant works, incorporating mistakes and common interaction patterns that older adults have into its design, and providing features tailored to the needs of older adults. We believe our findings and suggested design strategies will be useful for both researchers practitioners to help better leverage the capabilities of voice assistants for the aging population.

scholarly journals Designing Age-Friendly Communities: Exploring Qualitative Perspectives on Urban Green Spaces and Ageing in Two Indian Megacities

2021 ◽  
Vol 18 (4) ◽  
pp. 1491
Author(s):  
Deepti Adlakha ◽  
Mina Chandra ◽  
Murali Krishna ◽  
Lee Smith ◽  
Mark A. Tully
Keyword(s):  
Older Adults ◽  
Low Income ◽  
Later Life ◽  
Healthy Ageing ◽  
World Health ◽  
Social Resilience ◽  
Snowball Sampling ◽  
Structured Interviews ◽  
Urban Green ◽  
Activity Promotion

The World Health Organization and the United Nations have increasingly acknowledged the importance of urban green space (UGS) for healthy ageing. However, low- and middle-income countries (LMICs) like India with exponential ageing populations have inadequate UGS. This qualitative study examined the relationships between UGS and healthy ageing in two megacities in India. Participants were recruited using snowball sampling in New Delhi and Chennai and semi-structured interviews were conducted with consenting participants (N = 60, female = 51%; age > 60 years; fluent in English, Hindi, or Tamil). Interviews were recorded, transcribed, translated, and analysed using inductive and thematic analysis. Benefits of UGS included community building and social capital, improved health and social resilience, physical activity promotion, reduced exposure to noise, air pollution, and heat. Poorly maintained UGS and lack of safe, age-friendly pedestrian infrastructure were identified as barriers to health promotion in later life. Neighbourhood disorder and crime constrained older adults’ use of UGS in low-income neighbourhoods. This study underscores the role of UGS in the design of age-friendly communities in India. The findings highlight the benefits of UGS for older adults, particularly those living in socially disadvantaged or underserved communities, which often have least access to high-quality parks and green areas.

scholarly journals Older Adults’ Motivations for Participating in a “Tune-Up” of Their Driving Skills: A Multi-Stakeholder Analysis

2020 ◽  
pp. 073346482098241
Author(s):  
Ruheena Sangrar ◽  
Kyung Joon Mun ◽  
Lauren E. Griffith ◽  
Lori Letts ◽  
Brenda Vrkljan
Keyword(s):  
Older Adults ◽  
Stakeholder Analysis ◽  
Later Life ◽  
Community Dwelling ◽  
Older Drivers ◽  
Willingness To Participate ◽  
Structured Interviews ◽  
Driver Training ◽  
Near Misses ◽  
Driving Experience

Driver training has the potential to keep older adults safe behind-the-wheel for longer, yet there is limited evidence describing factors that influence their willingness to participate in training. Focus groups with community-dwelling older drivers ( n = 23; 70–90 years) and semi-structured interviews with driving instructors ( n = 6) and occupational therapists ( n = 5) were conducted to identify these factors. Qualitative descriptive analyses highlighted how self-awareness of behind-the-wheel abilities in later life can influence an older adult’s motivation to participate in driver training, as well as their willingness to discuss their behaviors. Collision-involvement and near-misses prompted participants to reflect on their driving abilities and their openness to feedback. Participants’ preferences for learning contexts that use a strengths-based approach and validate the driving experience of older drivers, while providing feedback on behind-the-wheel performance, were raised. Older driver training initiatives that consider the needs of the aging population in their design can promote road safety and community mobility.

scholarly journals Older adults, informal support, and the process of driving cessation

2020 ◽  
Author(s):  
◽  
Amy Murray ◽  
Keyword(s):  
Older Adults ◽  
Third Sector ◽  
Holistic Approach ◽  
Later Life ◽  
Qualitative Inquiry ◽  
Support Network ◽  
Informal Support ◽  
Structured Interviews ◽  
Driving Cessation ◽  
Homogeneous Sample

The following thesis is based upon an exploration into the process of driving cessation in later life, with a specific focus upon informal support. Although informal support has been highlighted as a highly important factor across the process of driving cessation (Johnson, 2008; Hanson & Hilldebrand, 2011; Ichikawa et al, 2016; Schryer et al, 2017), there is limited research which has explored this in depth. There is even less literature available which has incorporated the views of informal support network members, to understand their lived experiences of the driving cessation process. Studies which have addressed this gap, have tended to focus upon the views of adult children only (Rosenbloom, 2010; O’Connell et al, 2013). Using a phenomenological line of qualitative inquiry, individual semi-structured interviews with current and retired older drivers (n=15), and their family, friends, and wider community members (n=15) were completed. This was to provide a holistic approach to understand the driving cessation process, for the receivers and providers of informal support. Following a detailed thematic analysis, findings revealed both the process of driving cessation and informal support, to be profoundly complex, multi-faceted phenomena’s, holding multiple meanings for participants. This included a range of practical and psychosocial outcomes, which were both positive and negative. Often, findings were inter-linked, demonstrating the complexity of experiences amongst this far from homogeneous sample. The implications of the study have important messages for a number of individuals and groups, including older adults, their informal networks, policy and practice, and third sector organisations.

Rising above It: Status Ambivalence in Older Adults

Gerontology ◽  
2018 ◽  
Vol 64 (6) ◽  
pp. 576-588
Author(s):  
Deirdre A. Robertson ◽  
David Weiss
Keyword(s):  
Older Adults ◽  
Social Status ◽  
Later Life ◽  
Well Being ◽  
Preliminary Evidence ◽  
Protective Mechanism ◽  
Structured Interviews ◽  
Age Related ◽  
The Social ◽  
Implicit And Explicit

Background: Social status is the standing of a person or group in the social hierarchy, and is perceived to change across the life span from low social status in early life, to peak in midlife, and to a decline thereafter. As threats to subjective social status are known to be detrimental to individuals’ health, it is important to better understand how older adults perceive themselves and others in terms of age-related social status. Objective: We examined status ambivalence – the potential discrepancy between how older adults’ perceive social status for themselves compared to older adults in general. Method: Study 1 used qualitative data from 37 semi-structured interviews with older adults to assess perceptions of social status. Study 2 used quantitative survey data from 114 older adults who completed explicit and implicit measures of social status. Results: Study 1 (n = 37, meanage = 71.72, SDage = 5.69; 81.1% women) provided preliminary evidence for status ambivalence such that older adults reported unequivocal low social status for other older adults but a more ambivalent perception of their own social status. Study 2 (n = 114, meanage = 64.32, SDage = 8.98, 57.9% women) compared implicit and explicit measures of social status revealing that older adults consistently perceive older adults to have low social status but again show a more ambivalent perception of their own social status. Conclusion: We discuss status ambivalence as a potential protective mechanism in the context of negative societal perceptions of age-related social status that may be important for well-being in later life.

scholarly journals Designing Interiors to Mitigate Physical and Cognitive Deficits Related to Aging and to Promote Longevity in Older Adults: A Review

Gerontology ◽  
2018 ◽  
Vol 64 (6) ◽  
pp. 612-622 ◽  
Author(s):  
Altaf Engineer ◽  
Esther M. Sternberg ◽  
Bijan Najafi
Keyword(s):  
Older Adults ◽  
Interior Design ◽  
Aging Population ◽  
Well Being ◽  
Current Evidence ◽  
Design Strategies ◽  
Environmental Interventions ◽  
Stage Of Development ◽  
Living Environments ◽  
The Impact

Background: With the increasing global population of older adults, there is a need for environmental interventions that directly affect their physical, psychological, and emotional well-being to help them maintain or regain their independence and autonomy – all of which promote longevity. Methods: To better understand potential opportunities and challenges associated with interior design and “future homes” that may promote well-being, aging in place, and independent living in older adults, the authors reviewed relevant literature and included their own expert opinions from a multidisciplinary point of view including interior design, wellness, and engineering. Results: After summarizing existing environmental interventions for the aging population and their effectiveness, this review reveals knowledge gaps in interior design for the well-being and longevity of older adults followed by a discussion of opportunities for future research that may fill these gaps. Some of these opportunities include finding habilitative design strategies that identify and address unique situational needs of each user, advancing multidisciplinary fields such as environmental gerontology that recreate security and independence for older adults even outside of their homes, implementing technically advanced design strategies, which are flexible and adaptive to individual needs; and integrating the Internet of things (IoT) into living environments, including voice-activated command technologies to improve seniors’ central role in enabling an optimized healthcare ecosystem. Conclusions: Knowledge of current evidence regarding the impact of different environmental factors may hasten adaptation of well-designed innovations that can provide optimal healing and living environments for the aging population. By effectively addressing older adults’ unique and specialized needs, design practitioners can become an indispensable part of their medical, social, and environmental team. One of the rapidly developing infrastructures promising to revolutionize the design of “future homes” is the IoT. While it is at an early stage of development, ultimately we envisage a connected home using voice-controlled technology and Bluetooth-radio-connected add-ons, to augment much of what home health does today. Bringing these approaches together into an effective strategy for a model of effective geriatric care is important and needs to become an integral part of both design education and practice.

A Meta-Analysis of the Correlates of Successful Aging in Older Adults

2016 ◽  
Vol 39 (5) ◽  
pp. 657-677 ◽  
Author(s):  
Sin-Hyang Kim ◽  
Sihyun Park
Keyword(s):  
Older Adults ◽  
Physical Function ◽  
Successful Aging ◽  
Meta Analysis ◽  
Aging Population ◽  
Later Life ◽  
Relative Strength ◽  
Analytic Method ◽  
Consensus Definition ◽  
Online Databases

Objective: Successful aging (SA) is a concept that remains without a consensus definition. The purpose of the current study was to explore the components of SA by systematically reviewing factors correlated with SA. We also compared the relative strength of the components by using the meta-analytic method. Methods: A meta-analysis was conducted to quantitatively synthesize the correlates of SA from three online databases: PubMed, CINAHL, and SCOPUS. Main Findings: The correlates were categorized into four domains: (1) avoiding disease and disability, (2) having high cognitive/mental/physical function, (3) actively engaging in life, and (4) psychologically well adapted in later life. The domain “psychologically well adapted in later life” showed the strongest association with SA, ES( r) = .482. Conclusion: The findings of this study were meaningful in terms of examining the strength of the correlations between the domains and overall SA and, further, providing evidence for building interventions for aging population.

scholarly journals Trauma and Religious Complexity in Later Life

2020 ◽  
Vol 4 (Supplement_1) ◽  
pp. 415-415
Author(s):  
Rennae Wigton ◽  
Shannon Jones ◽  
Austin Prusak ◽  
Andrew Futterman
Keyword(s):  
Older Adults ◽  
New York ◽  
New England ◽  
Later Life ◽  
Severe Trauma ◽  
Great Distance ◽  
Structured Interviews ◽  
Personal Vulnerability ◽  
And Behavior ◽  
The Impact

Abstract The present study examines the impact of traumatic life events on religious complexity in later life. We anticipated that those older adults experiencing stressors that produce significant personal vulnerability (e.g., life threatening illnesses) demonstrate reduced complexity of belief and behavior (e.g., less belief with doubt). From a sample of 278 semi-structured interviews of older adults (aged 55-101 years-old.) from six New England and New York states, we analyzed 166 interviews using grounded theory (Strauss & Corbin, 1990). Individuals who experienced trauma related to war, close familial loss, and/or severe physical illness tended to be “true believers,” (i.e., adhere to rigid belief orthodoxy; Hoffer, 1950). By contrast, those who experienced less severe trauma (e.g., minor illness, job loss) were less apt to describe rigid belief. Temporal proximity of trauma was not consistently associated with greater complexity of belief and behavior, in the sense that with great distance from trauma, individuals were able to “work through” their experiences of trauma, and thereby increase complexity of belief and behavior. This is consistent with findings by Harris and Leak (2015), Krause and Hayward (2012), and Wong (2013) that suggest that trauma leading to personal vulnerability leads to long-term physical, mental, behavioral, and spiritual deficits that rigid religious belief and behavior help to offset. These findings are discussed in terms of psychological theories of grief resolution, personal coping, and terror management.

Older adult recovery: “What are we working towards?”

2016 ◽  
Vol 21 (1) ◽  
pp. 1-10 ◽  
Author(s):  
Samantha Rankin ◽  
Stephanie Petty
Keyword(s):  
Mental Health ◽  
Older Adults ◽  
Clinical Practice ◽  
Older Adult ◽  
Later Life ◽  
Mental Health Setting ◽  
Personal Recovery ◽  
Structured Interviews ◽  
Content Type ◽  
Inpatient Mental Health

Purpose – The perspectives of frontline clinical staff working with individuals in later life within an inpatient mental health setting, of their role in recovery, have not yet been explored. The purpose of this paper is to understand what recovery means within an inpatient mental health setting for older adults. The authors address clear implications for clinical practice. Design/methodology/approach – Semi-structured interviews were conducted with 11 multidisciplinary participants across two specialist older adult recovery units at an independent hospital in the UK. Thematic analysis was applied to the transcripts. Findings – Three main themes were identified: participants identified their normative task as the promotion of “moving on” (clinical recovery) and their existential task as personal recovery. The context in which recovery happens was highlighted as the third theme. These represented competing workplace goals of clinical and personal recovery. This highlights the need to give permission to personal recovery as the process that enables mental health recovery in older adults. Originality/value – Staff working in a inpatient mental health service for older adults discussed the meaning of recovery and their role in enabling recovery. This has implications for sustainable clinical practice in this setting. Recovery-orientated practice in this setting is required but the detail is not yet understood.

Mitigating the Challenges and Capitalizing on Opportunities: A Qualitative Investigation of the Public Library’s Response to an Aging Population

2020 ◽  
pp. 1-14
Author(s):  
Kaitlin Wynia Baluk ◽  
Meridith Griffin ◽  
James Gillett
Keyword(s):  
Older Adults ◽  
Staff Training ◽  
Public Libraries ◽  
Population Aging ◽  
Aging Population ◽  
Later Life ◽  
The Public ◽  
Public Librarians ◽  
The Many ◽  
Depth Interviews

ABSTRACT Public libraries are community hubs that can both create opportunities and address challenges often associated with later life and population aging. Using a thematic analysis of 18 in-depth interviews with public librarians, this study investigates common practices and challenges experienced while developing programs for older adults. This analysis is augmented by an environmental scan of older-adult programming offered in member libraries of the Canadian Urban Library Council (CULC). Results indicate that public librarians leverage community partnerships and staff training to develop programs that foster digital, financial, language, and health literacy and create opportunities for both intergenerational and peer social connection. At the same time, they face challenges related to limited space, budgets, and staff capacity, difficulty meeting the extensive and often conflicting interests of various groups within the library, and marketing programming to older adults. Findings indicate that public libraries may be key players in mitigating challenges often associated with having an aging population, and indeed highlight the many benefits of valuing and providing services to this population.

Narrative construction of resilience: stories of older Czech adults

2016 ◽  
Vol 37 (9) ◽  
pp. 1849-1873 ◽  
Author(s):  
EVA DUBOVSKÁ ◽  
VLADIMÍR CHRZ ◽  
PETER TAVEL ◽  
IVA POLÁČKOVÁ ŠOLCOVÁ ◽  
JIŘÍ RŮŽIČKA
Keyword(s):  
Older Adults ◽  
Qualitative Methodology ◽  
Later Life ◽  
Structured Interviews ◽  
The Czech Republic ◽  
Positive Adaptation ◽  
Narrative Perspective ◽  
Values And Beliefs ◽  
Better Than

ABSTRACTSome older adults handle the pitfalls of ageing better than others. One explanation emerges from the concept of resilience, the ability to bounce back from the adversities of later life. In this study, we approached resilience from the narrative perspective. This study is a part of a project based on the DIPEx qualitative methodology, focused on different aspects of ageing. A combination of narrative and semi-structured interviews was conducted with 50 older adults (aged 75 and over). From the total number of interviews, a sub-group of 11 resilient participants was selected on the basis of the criteria set for resilience: (a) past exposure to adversity; and (b) positive adaptation to this adversity in terms of quality of life, happiness and activity. The results of the analysis are presented in the framework of five categories: (a) thematic lines, (b) agency and positioning; (c) values and beliefs; (d) reflections and perspectives; and (e) plot and genre. Both agency and reflections point to actively resisting old age as an important characteristic of resilient older adults in the Czech Republic. This resistance is often allied with irony, but we have also found genres of heroic coping and affirmation of lucky moments. Key thematic lines were love of life, emphasis on the importance of movement and positive social relationships; key values expressed by the participants were relational, existential and spiritual.

Sign in / Sign up

Export Citation Format

Share Document