Page 75 - Petelin, Ana. 2021. Ed. Zdravje starostnikov / Health of the Elderly. Proceedings. Koper: University of Primorska Press.
P. 75
6). As Dolničar et al. (2021) found, pressure on informal carers increased attitudes towards smart technologies among older people and their informal carers in slovenia 73
during the Covid 19 pandemic.
One way to address some of these challenges is to harness the potential
of new technologies to support LTC and informal carers (Eurocarers, 2019),
which is increasingly being proposed in European policy (Eurocarers, 2018,
2019; European Ageing Network, 2019; European Commission, 2021). A recent
European Commission report calls for deployment of different ICT solutions
for informal carers and older people and for addressing the lack of digital skills
and mistrust of new technologies (Social Protection Committee (SPC) & Euro-
pean Commission (DG EMPL), 2021; Zigante, 2021).
Despite evidence of the positive impact of these new technologies on older
people (e.g., improved quality of life, increased safety, independence, reduced
social isolation) (Khosravi et al., 2016; Siegel and Dorner, 2017)) and their in-
formal carers (e.g. increased peace of mind and reassurance) (Andersson et al.,
2017, Smole-Orehek et al., 2019, D’Onofrio et al., 2017), the prevalence of their
use is still low, which is particularly pronounced in Slovenia.
The aim of this paper is to assess:
- which telecare functionalities are the most important for commu-
nity-dwelling care receivers aged 65 and over (PE) and their infor-
mal carers (SE);
- technology competence among PEs and SEs and differences betwe-
en them.
Methods
The present study was conducted as part of the i-evAALution project and is
part of the randomised control trial (RCT), which ran from 2019 to 2021 in Slo-
venia, Austria, Italy and the Netherlands. For this paper, only the selected base-
line section of RCT (i. e. before randomisation to test or control group and be-
fore installation of the bundle of AAL solutions), which relates to the Slovenian
pilot site, is presented and discussed. The study has received ethical approval
from the University Innsbruck Ethical Review Board (28/2019). Descriptive sta-
tistics and bivariate analyses were calculated.
Instruments
The Technology Commitment Scale (TC scale) (Neyer et al., 2012) was found to
be moderately reliable, with a Chronbach Alpha of 0.662 for PE and 0.620 for
SE. Other questions presented in this paper were developed by the project con-
sortium.
during the Covid 19 pandemic.
One way to address some of these challenges is to harness the potential
of new technologies to support LTC and informal carers (Eurocarers, 2019),
which is increasingly being proposed in European policy (Eurocarers, 2018,
2019; European Ageing Network, 2019; European Commission, 2021). A recent
European Commission report calls for deployment of different ICT solutions
for informal carers and older people and for addressing the lack of digital skills
and mistrust of new technologies (Social Protection Committee (SPC) & Euro-
pean Commission (DG EMPL), 2021; Zigante, 2021).
Despite evidence of the positive impact of these new technologies on older
people (e.g., improved quality of life, increased safety, independence, reduced
social isolation) (Khosravi et al., 2016; Siegel and Dorner, 2017)) and their in-
formal carers (e.g. increased peace of mind and reassurance) (Andersson et al.,
2017, Smole-Orehek et al., 2019, D’Onofrio et al., 2017), the prevalence of their
use is still low, which is particularly pronounced in Slovenia.
The aim of this paper is to assess:
- which telecare functionalities are the most important for commu-
nity-dwelling care receivers aged 65 and over (PE) and their infor-
mal carers (SE);
- technology competence among PEs and SEs and differences betwe-
en them.
Methods
The present study was conducted as part of the i-evAALution project and is
part of the randomised control trial (RCT), which ran from 2019 to 2021 in Slo-
venia, Austria, Italy and the Netherlands. For this paper, only the selected base-
line section of RCT (i. e. before randomisation to test or control group and be-
fore installation of the bundle of AAL solutions), which relates to the Slovenian
pilot site, is presented and discussed. The study has received ethical approval
from the University Innsbruck Ethical Review Board (28/2019). Descriptive sta-
tistics and bivariate analyses were calculated.
Instruments
The Technology Commitment Scale (TC scale) (Neyer et al., 2012) was found to
be moderately reliable, with a Chronbach Alpha of 0.662 for PE and 0.620 for
SE. Other questions presented in this paper were developed by the project con-
sortium.
