Purpose

Long-distance caregiving (LDC) technologies play a significant role in enabling distant care and facilitating living-alone older adults to keep socially connected. However, there is scarce research exploring the older adults’ attitudes towards and intention to use such technologies. This paper is based on a systematic review of existing literature to explore the multifarious factors influencing independent community-living older adults’ attitudes towards and intention to use LDC technologies.

Methods

Articles published in English between 2006 and 2020 were reviewed by searching electronic databases of PubMed, ProQuest, EBSCOhost. The inclusion criteria were limited to quantitative, qualitative, or mixed-methods studies that involved: 1) distant caregiving; 2) older adults aged 60 years or above, who were living alone or with only their spouse in the community (even though the samples might also involve other non-older adults); 3) technologies including ICT-based devices, systems, or programs enabling data transmission were used; 4), intention to use or behavioral usage in regard to the technologies were reported or discussed.

Results

In total, 41 out of 8674 articles were included. Both determinants and moderators of affecting the use of the ICT-based LDC technologies were identified with theoretical guidance. To summarize, there are personal factors involved, such as personality, concerns regarding security and privacy, health conditions, requisite knowledge, financial conditions, and influence from significant others, encompassing formal and informal caregivers; and factors related to the devices, in terms of their user-friendliness and functionality.

Conclusion

This review highlights the importance of striking a good balance between functionality and privacy concerns, besides considering the direct and indirect cost to users. LDC technology education should be promoted at the societal level to facilitate older adults’ better understanding of the device utilities by enhancing their technological literacy. Implications for various stakeholders to cope with the challenges of an aging population are also discussed.

中文翻译：

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对影响老年人使用远程护理技术的态度和意愿的因素的系统评价

目的

远程护理 (LDC) 技术在实现远程护理和促进独居老年人保持社交联系方面发挥着重要作用。然而，很少有研究探讨老年人对使用此类技术的态度和意图。本文基于对现有文献的系统回顾，以探讨影响独立社区生活的老年人对 LDC 技术的使用态度和意图的多种因素。

方法

通过检索PubMed、ProQuest、EBSCOhost的电子数据库，对2006年至2020年间以英文发表的文章进行了审查。纳入标准仅限于涉及以下内容的定量、定性或混合方法研究：1) 远程护理；2) 60 岁或以上、独居或仅与配偶在社区居住的老年人（即使样本中可能还涉及其他非老年人）；3) 使用了基于 ICT 的设备、系统或程序等技术，以实现数据传输；4），报告或讨论了与技术有关的使用意图或行为使用。

结果

总共纳入了 8674 篇文章中的 41 篇。通过理论指导确定了影响基于 ICT 的最不发达国家技术使用的决定因素和调节因素。总而言之，涉及个人因素，例如个性、对安全和隐私的担忧、健康状况、必要的知识、财务状况以及来自重要他人（包括正式和非正式护理人员）的影响；以及与设备相关的因素，就其用户友好性和功能而言。

结论

除了考虑用户的直接和间接成本外，本次审查还强调了在功能和隐私问题之间取得良好平衡的重要性。应在社会层面促进最不发达国家的技术教育，通过提高他们的技术素养来促进老年人更好地了解设备实用程序。还讨论了对各种利益相关者应对人口老龄化挑战的影响。