Yu Shulan, Chen Tianyue
College of Furnishings and Industrial Design, Nanjing Forestry University, Nanjing, China.
Front Public Health. 2024 Nov 19;12:1435329. doi: 10.3389/fpubh.2024.1435329. eCollection 2024.
Chatbots are increasingly integrated into the lives of older adults to assist with health and wellness tasks. This study aimed to understand the factors that enhance older adults' acceptance of chatbots in healthcare delivery.
This study proposed an extended Unified Theory of Acceptance and Use of Technology model (UTAUT), including aging factors of perceived physical condition, self-actualization needs, and technology anxiety. The model was tested by PLS (Partial Least Squares) with data collected from 428 Chinese citizens aged 60 and above.
The results reveal that performance expectancy, effort expectancy, and social influence significantly affected older adults' behavioral intention to use chatbots. The facilitating conditions, self-actualization needs, and perceived physical condition significantly affected the actual use behavior of chatbots by older adults, whereas technology anxiety did not. Furthermore, the influence of effort expectancy and social influence on behavioral intention were moderated by experience.
The behavioral intentions of older adults with low experience are more strongly influenced by social influences and effort expectancy. Furthermore, healthcare providers, designers, and policymakers should emphasize the impact of facilitating conditions, self-actualization needs, and perceived physical conditions on chatbot applications among older adults.
聊天机器人越来越多地融入老年人的生活，以协助完成健康和保健任务。本研究旨在了解增强老年人在医疗保健服务中接受聊天机器人的因素。
本研究提出了一个扩展的技术接受与使用统一理论模型（UTAUT），包括感知身体状况、自我实现需求和技术焦虑等老龄化因素。该模型通过偏最小二乘法（PLS）进行测试，数据收集自428名60岁及以上的中国公民。
结果表明，绩效期望、努力期望和社会影响显著影响老年人使用聊天机器人的行为意向。促进条件、自我实现需求和感知身体状况显著影响老年人对聊天机器人的实际使用行为，而技术焦虑则没有。此外，努力期望和社会影响对行为意向的影响受经验调节。
经验较少的老年人的行为意向受社会影响和努力期望的影响更大。此外，医疗保健提供者、设计师和政策制定者应强调促进条件、自我实现需求和感知身体状况对老年人聊天机器人应用的影响。
