Engaging Older Adults to Guide the Development of Passive Home Health Monitoring to Support Aging in Place

Highlights: What are the main findings? Older adults have an interest in and willingness to have home installed image free sensors in their homes to monitor health. Their willingness was amplified with changes to their living arrangements, health status, and experience with others having a health event that required getting help. Newly retired participants were generally younger and more frequent technology users. Thus, they were more knowledgeable about and accepting of incorporating our proposed sensors in their homes. What are the implication of the main findings? The study underscores the importance of involving potential users in technology development to create effective and acceptable solutions for aging in place. To be accepted, home health monitoring systems must be cost-conscious, privacy preserving and flexible enough to accommodate individuals at different life phases and comfort levels, with different home environments and support systems. By 2050, most adults aged 65 and older in the United States will want to age independently at home, a goal that will strain healthcare resources. Adults aged 50 and older (N = 112) were recruited for study participation between 2018 and 2022. They completed surveys and participated in discussion sessions to explore their needs and opinions regarding smart home sensors. Survey results indicated that older adults’ comfort with smart home sensors increased with their perceived need for monitoring when home alone (OR = 1.46; p = 0.012) or sick/recovering from an illness (OR = 2.21; p < 0.001). When sick compared to when healthy, individuals were 2.65 times more likely to prefer installing multiple sensors in the living room, 1.75 times more likely in the kitchen, 3.66 times more likely in the bedroom, and 3.41 times more likely in the bathroom (p < 0.05). Regarding data sharing, participants were most willing to share information with healthcare providers and family members on a regular basis (80 and 81%, respectively) and 71% on a regular basis or when sick/recovering. Comfort with data sharing with professional caregivers (OR = 1.67; p = 0.0017) and monitoring companies (OR = 1.34; p = 0.030) significantly increased when sick/recovering. Discussion sessions highlighted overwhelming concerns about personal security/privacy, loss of independence, and ethical issues in data collection. Participants emphasized the need for new systems to be flexible, cost-effective, user-friendly, and respectful of user autonomy, accommodating diverse life stages, comfort levels, home environments, income levels, and support structures. Insights are now informing sensor data collection in our model home. Study findings underscore the importance of involving potential users in technology development to create effective and acceptable solutions for aging in place.