Offermann-van Heek Julia, Ziefle Martina
Human-Computer Interaction Center, RWTH Aachen University, Aachen, Germany.
JMIR Rehabil Assist Technol. 2018 Sep 24;5(2):e10424. doi: 10.2196/10424.
Demographic change represents enormous burdens for the care sectors, resulting in high proportions of (older) people in need of care and a lack of care staff. Ambient Assisted Living (AAL) technologies have the potential to support the bottlenecks in care supply but are not yet in widespread use in professional care contexts.
The objective of our study was to investigate professional caregivers' AAL technology acceptance and their perception regarding specific technologies, data handling, perceived benefits, and barriers. In particular, this study focuses on the perspectives on AAL technologies differing between care professionals working in diverse care contexts to examine the extent to which the care context influences the acceptance of assistive technologies.
A Web-based survey (N=170) was carried out focusing on professional caregivers including medical, geriatric, and disabled people's caregivers. Based on a scenario, the participants were asked for their perceptions concerning specific technologies, specific types of gathered data, and potential benefits of and barriers to AAL technology usage.
The care context significantly impacted the evaluations of AAL technologies (F=2.514; P=.002). Professional caregivers of disabled people had a significantly more critical attitude toward AAL technologies than medical and geriatric caregivers, indicated (1) by being the only caregiver group that rejected evaluations of AAL technology acceptance (F=4.570; P=.01) and specific technologies (F=11.727; P<.001) applied for gathering data and (2) by the comparatively lowest agreements referring to the evaluations of data types (F=4.073, P=.02) that are allowed to be gathered.
AAL technology acceptance is critical because of technology implementation reasons, especially in the care of people with disabilities. AAL technologies in care contexts have to be tailored to care professional's needs and concerns ("care about us"). The results contribute to a broader understanding of professional caregivers' needs referring to specific data and technology configurations and enclose major differences concerning diverse care contexts. Integrating these findings into user group-tailored technology concepts and communication strategies will support a sustainable adoption of AAL systems in professional care contexts.
人口结构变化给护理行业带来了巨大负担，导致需要护理的（老年）人群比例很高，且护理人员短缺。环境辅助生活（AAL）技术有潜力缓解护理供应方面的瓶颈，但在专业护理环境中尚未得到广泛应用。
我们研究的目的是调查专业护理人员对AAL技术的接受程度，以及他们对特定技术、数据处理、感知到的益处和障碍的看法。特别是，本研究关注不同护理环境中的护理专业人员对AAL技术的不同观点，以考察护理环境在多大程度上影响对辅助技术的接受度。
开展了一项基于网络的调查（N = 170），调查对象为包括医疗、老年护理和残疾人护理人员在内的专业护理人员。基于一个场景，询问参与者对特定技术、收集到的特定数据类型以及AAL技术使用的潜在益处和障碍的看法。
护理环境对AAL技术的评价有显著影响（F = 2.514；P = 0.002）。残疾人专业护理人员对AAL技术的态度明显比医疗和老年护理人员更为挑剔，这体现在：（1）他们是唯一拒绝接受AAL技术接受度评价的护理人员群体（F = 4.570；P = 0.01）以及用于收集数据的特定技术（F = 11.727；P < 0.001）；（2）在允许收集的数据类型评价方面，他们的认同度相对最低（F = 4.073，P = 0.02）。
由于技术实施原因，AAL技术的接受度很关键，尤其是在残疾人护理方面。护理环境中的AAL技术必须根据护理专业人员的需求和关注点进行定制（“关心我们”）。这些结果有助于更广泛地理解专业护理人员对特定数据和技术配置的需求，并揭示不同护理环境之间的主要差异。将这些发现整合到针对用户群体定制的技术概念和沟通策略中，将有助于AAL系统在专业护理环境中可持续地采用。
