Aging in Place Tech Brings Children Relief
Technology made large populations possible; large populations now make technology indispensable.
~ Joseph Krutch (Writer)
Aging in Place
The U.S. News and World Report did a recent (2023) Aging in Place Technology survey. The methodology was reported as:
Methodology
Our 360 Reviews team used the third-party survey platform Pollfish to conduct a national survey of 2,000 U.S. adults who are 55-plus. People identifying as female comprised 57% of respondents, while those identifying as male represented the remaining 43%. Responses were then weighted in order to reflect the current U.S. population by achieving equal distribution with known population characteristics.
The article begins, as most do, making the case for the need of aging-in-place technology by providing demographic transition statistics. The U.S. Census Bureau shows those over 55 grew to 55 million in 2020 and will continue to rise. Point taken, the nation is getting older, and technology will play a larger role now and into the future—got it.
Aging in Place Preferred
I found the fact that 93% of respondents favored aging in place and reported it was an “important goal for them,” supports my informal experience when talking with the 55 Plus crowd.
The term “general aging” was given as the main reason adults 55 and over use health-related technologies. Further, devices they felt made it easiest to age in place included:
- Medical/Health related mobile apps
- Service-related apps (i.e., Instacart)
- Wearables Health/Medical trackers
- Assistive Smart Home Tech
- Medical Alert devices/systems
These are the usual suspects when discussing aging in place technologies.
Reasons
The main reasons given to adopt assistive devices were not surprisingly age-related physical/mental impairments. Also noted were reasons that lowered the barriers to adoption of such technologies:
- Ease of Use
- Ease of Setup
- Accessible via mobile app
- Wireless
- Voice activated
- Discreet design (non-stigmatizing)
Other data was provided, however, the line I found most interesting was this one:
That survey similarly found that 97% of users’ children say the medical device system their parents use brings them relief.
This tells me that when marketing aging-in-place technologies to potential end-users, savvy salespeople will remember younger family members in the process and emphasize their “peace of mind (POM)—this could be the factor that makes it all possible.
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U.S. News & World Report Aging in Place with Assistive Tech Survey 2023 by Lauren Naru
Here:
(https://www.usnews.com/360-reviews/services/senior-tech-aging-in-place-survey)