Offermann-van Heek Julia, Ziefle Martina
Human-Computer Interaction Center, RWTH Aachen University, Aachen, Germany.
Front Public Health. 2019 Jun 12;7:134. doi: 10.3389/fpubh.2019.00134. eCollection 2019.
Ambient assisted living (AAL) technologies present one approach to counter the challenges of demographic change in terms of an aging population, rising care needs, and lacking care personnel by supporting (older) people in need of care and enabling a longer and more independent staying at own home. Although the number of studies focusing on AAL users' acceptance and perception has increased in the last years, trade-off decisions-the weighing of perceived benefits and barriers of technology usage-have not been studied so far. Nevertheless, this is of high relevance: A realistic evaluation of adoption behaviors in different stakeholders (patients, care personnel) requires an understanding of exactly the weighing process of benefits against the barriers in line with the decision of the final willingness to use AAL technology. The current study applied a conjoint analysis approach and investigates people's decision behavior to use an AAL system for a family member in need of care. Study participants ( = 140) had to decide between realistic care scenarios consisting of different options of two benefits (increase in safety, relief of caring burden of relatives) and two barriers (access to personal data and data handling) of technology usage. Results revealed data access and privacy to be most relevant for the decision to use AAL technology at home. However, care experience essentially influenced the decision patterns. For the care experienced group, data access should be limited to most trusted persons and close relatives, rather than to medical professionals. The most important reasons to use AAL are the emotional relief and the felt safety for the person in care. For care novices, in contrast, data access should be in the exclusive responsibility of medical professionals. The reasons that militate in favor of using AAL technology are the increase in process efficiency and medical safety. The results are useful to develop user-tailored technology concepts and derive user-specific communication guidelines within and across clinical and home care contexts.
环境辅助生活（AAL）技术提供了一种应对人口结构变化挑战的方法，这些挑战包括人口老龄化、护理需求增加以及护理人员短缺等问题，它通过为有护理需求的（老年）人提供支持，并使他们能够在自己家中更长时间、更独立地生活。尽管近年来关注AAL用户接受度和认知度的研究数量有所增加，但权衡决策——即对技术使用的感知收益和障碍进行权衡——迄今为止尚未得到研究。然而，这一点具有高度相关性：对不同利益相关者（患者、护理人员）采用行为的现实评估需要确切了解收益与障碍的权衡过程，这与最终使用AAL技术的意愿决定相一致。当前的研究采用了联合分析方法，调查人们为有护理需求的家庭成员使用AAL系统的决策行为。研究参与者（n = 140）必须在由技术使用的两种收益（提高安全性、减轻亲属护理负担）和两种障碍（获取个人数据和数据处理）的不同选项组成的现实护理场景之间做出决定。结果显示，数据访问和隐私对于在家中使用AAL技术的决策最为相关。然而，护理经验在本质上影响了决策模式。对于有护理经验的群体，数据访问应限于最值得信任的人和近亲，而不是医疗专业人员。使用AAL的最重要原因是让受护理者情绪得到缓解和感到安全。相比之下，对于没有护理经验的人，数据访问应由医疗专业人员独家负责。支持使用AAL技术的原因是流程效率提高和医疗安全性提高。这些结果有助于开发针对用户的技术概念，并在临床和家庭护理环境中制定针对用户的沟通指南。
