From Age to Age: Key Gerontographics Contributions to Technology

Adoption by Older Adults

Cosmina Paul

and Luiza Spiru

Ana Aslan International Foundation, Bucharest, Romania

Keywords: Gerontographics, Older Adults, New Technologies, Technology Acceptance, Perceived Usefulness.

Abstract: Research conducted on the topic of new technologies and gerontechnology acceptance and adoption by older

adults is in its early development and poses challenges regarding the wholistic understanding of older adults’

technology adoption’s drivers and barriers. This study aims at contributing to the understanding of

technologies’ relevance and usage by older adults with a high accuracy ascertainment and increased

simplification and effectiveness, starting from the gerontographics segmentation. For doing so, the study

interviewed 125 older adults from three countries: Romania, Slovenia and Cyprus. Our research categorized

these older adults in to four gerontographics groups according to their reported psychological and physical

well-being. We found significant differences in the actual usage: perceived usefulness, the ascribed meaning

of technology and their acceptance and/or rejection of the new technologies by the four gerontechnologies.

These findings emphasized that the relation of older adults with technology and the barriers which arose are

differently experienced by segments with dissimilar physical and psychological well-being. Nevertheless,

they constitute powerful evidence of the value of the gerontographics in conceptualizing, developing and

marketing new technologies and gerontechnologies.

1 INTRODUCTION

The aging of the population has led to an older

adults’ market where various business opportunities

have arisen and attracted investment in technologies

of health and medical care, insurance, entertainment

and education for older adults. Hence, recent

developments show that older adults are no

longer seen as a supplementary market. They are

seen as belonging to a large group with various

abilities, needs and preferences which the

technology industry is seeking to meet. Our

study aims at contributing to meet these needs

through a simple and effective model of

technology acceptance for older adults.

Data show that older adults’ technology

acceptance and usage is still slow and lags

behind expectations (Wildenbos, 2019; Friemel,

2016; Ramón-Jerónimo et al, 2013), although older

adults are today more prepared to adopt to new

technology because of the technology familiarity and

pre-retirement computer use. Motivational

https://orcid.org/0000-0003-3827-2290

https://orcid.org/0000-0002-5308-205X

indifference or the lack of relevance and deficient

knowledge are at the core of technology rejection or

limited use of technology, while cost is not a key

factor anymore (Peacock, 2007; Juznic, 2006). An in-

depth understanding of adoption or rejection of the

new technology by older adults, the barriers and

facilitating factors, is becoming more and more

important as the older adult population increases.

For a deeper understanding of the factors

affecting technology adoption or rejection by older

adults, researchers and professionals started to refer to

the now classic ‘technology acceptance models’ and

to generate and tailor-made new ones based on

specific technologies, i.e. internet, mobile phones

(Macedo, 2017; Arenas Gaitán et al, 2015; Golant,

2017; Mitzner et al, 2010). Currently, a universal,

accurate, effective and easy to apply understanding

for technology acceptance for older adults is

needed to accelerate technology marketing and

further our understanding of the relationship between

technology and late adulthood.

Paul, C. and Spiru, L.

From Age to Age: Key Gerontographics Contributions to Technology Adoption by Older Adults.

DOI: 10.5220/0010395701210129

In Proceedings of the 7th International Conference on Information and Communication Technologies for Ageing Well and e-Health (ICT4AWE 2021), pages 121-129

ISBN: 978-989-758-506-7

121

We developed a new understanding while

conducting three pilot cycles within the project

Senior-TV (see acknowledgements). The sample

project aimed at developing a platform for providing

formal and informal care giving services to older

adult citizens that live alone and that focuses on the

active prevention and the maintenance of

relationships with friends, family, and the

community. The previous two pilot cycles were

constructed on the TAM and UTAUT models and the

research results show that there is a sharp difference

in the technology adoption between the dependent

and independent older adults and that the last tend to

reject many of the gerontechnologies because of age-

stigmatizing. The third pilot cycle, whose results are

presented here, aimed at developing a new model for

an in-depth understanding of the elderly adoption and

actual usage of new technologies.

This new understanding can inform and support

the introducing of new technology and

gerontechnology in a gradual way, in order to support

a progressive familiarity with technology along the

diversifying of their needs with age. For example, the

projects Ella4Life aims at offering a new

technological solution adapted for people in various

stages of their life, thus being customized to the

specific issues of each group; from younger

customers (55+) at risk of loneliness, sedentary

behaviour and loss of independency, or with a desire

or need for extra comfort or safety (because of slight

physical or cognitive abilities) and moving to elderly

customers / patients (70+) with slight to moderate and

then moderate to severe diminishing of their physical

or cognitive abilities. iCan is an inclusive online

platform that will aid its users in various ways in their

everyday life. How the iCan Solution can be accepted

by the elderly aged over 70 years in order to increase

their self-dependency and management is a challenge,

especially for the countries whose cultures do not

encourage preventive approaches in health and life

styles. Therefore, these research findings are of great

relevance for the Ella4Life and iCan mentioned

projects for learning about how to increase

acceptances and actual usage of the new technologies.

The present study shed light on the intriguing

phenomenon of technology adoption through

emphasizing the diversity of older adults and their

relation with technology not through the lens of age,

but through the inherent features of late adulthood in

order to understand barriers and facilitators to

technology acceptance. Age per se deceives research

for that it may induce over-comparativeness to other

younger groups, by emphasizing the have nots of

the older adults rather than their needs, habits and

preferences. The constant comparison with the

younger generations may limit the understanding of

the specific needs, wants and preferences of the older

adults and refrain research from studying the

diversity within the older adults’ group.

2 THEORETICAL

BACKGROUND

The category stereotyping of ‘older adults’ drives

industry, decision makers and others to think about

older adults as being a homogeneous group in needs

and preferences, which, it is not. Older adults

are a more diverse group than younger

generations because their differences and diversity

have increased with age. And older adults’ attitudes

towards old and new technology are also

heterogeneous (e.g. age, culture, emotional state of

health, cognitive abilities). Therefore, an age-based

definition of the older adults or the distinction

between young and older adults is of insufficient use-

effectiveness (Nimrod, 2013; Sthienrapapayut et al,

2018). The lack of the true understanding of the

make-up of the older adults’ market coupled with

the lack of experience in working with and for older

adults also prompts older adults to reject modern

technology for that that does not respond to their call.

Age matters but it does not decide on

technology acceptance (Moschis 2019; Paul et al

2019; Steenstra 2015). There is invariable some

decline which comes with ageing, but

large variance remains within the group. For

example, somebody at 65 years old may exhibit the

same state of health as somebody at 75 years old

and vice-versa. Mallenius et al. (2007) suggest

functional capacity, referring to the physical,

psychological and social aspects as factors which

facilitates technology adoption. Sharit, et al, 2009)

show that chronological age can be replaced by

variables such as cognitive abilities and

knowledge when predicting information seeking on

the internet by older adults. McCloskey (2008) found

that age does not significantly affect the perception

of usefulness and it may have an indirect effect

on the technology acceptance through ease of use.

Gerontographics suggest that rather than

considering age per se, more accurate and relevant

data are to be obtained when accounting for physical

and psychological state of the older adults.

Geronthographics is an approach developed by

Moschis (1996) and it is employed in marketing

and consumer behaviour. It proved to be

ICT4AWE 2021 - 7th International Conference on Information and Communication Technologies for Ageing Well and e-Health

122

extremely efficient in predicting older adults’

consumer activity or, going beyond the trite

understanding of the concepts of biological and

cognitive age (Nimrod, 2013; Sthienrapapayut et al,

2018). It aims at revealing the individual differences

in aging processes in late life in all respects and

it assumes that these differences are the outcome of

1) The individual differences in ageing, and 2) the

variances in the life experiences which influence

psychographics factors. According to Moschis, the

life experiences of the older adults’ influence on the

psychological factors, which ultimately, influence

their needs and wants.

Moschis refers to four categories of older adults

which are selected based on their state of health on a

continuum from independency towards dependency,

as healthy indulgers, ailing out goers, healthy hermits

and frail recluses (Moschis and Mathur 1993;

Moschis 1996, 2003;). The approach is based on the

assumption that older adults manifest similar

behaviour consumer activity as long as they

had encountered similar circumstances,

experiences and past events, based on the type of

aging experience. The first group are those people

who exhibit physical and psychological wellbeing and

adapted well to life’s challenges. Their good health

conditions support their psychological and social

aging. The second group is still independent and

socially active in spite of a decline in health. Against

their low-level of physical well-being, they manifest

a high-level of psychological well-being. The third

group are those who present a quite well health

condition, but due to the accumulated experiences of

negative encounters, they insulate themselves

socially and “feel” being old. Hence, they are those

who have a quite good physical well-being but a

low psychological well-being. The fourth group are

people with chronic health conditions and who

encountered negative life events. They show a

relatively low physical and psychological well-being

alike.

Because we considered the terms ascribed by

Moschis derogatory, such as frail recluses or healthy

hermits, we will further use the four categories

without name reference: 1) the first group, those

in good health and active, ph+ps+ (physically

and psychologically well), 2) the second group, those

in poor health and active, ph-ps+ (physically not well

but psychologically well), 3) the third group, those in

good health but without a social life, ph+ps-

(physically well but psychologically not well), and

4) the fourth group, those bound due to poor health,

ph-ps- (physically and psychologically not well).

The four categories better reveal why some

technologies are adopted while others are rejected

by older adults. Some technologies are meant to

serve a medical or utility purpose, while some

other are designed for more hedonistic experiences.

But utility and hedonism or information and

entertainment have different meanings to people

based on their state of health and irrespective of

their age. For example, active and independent

older adults do not perceive Health Technologies

and Gerontechnologies to be useful for them and

prefer to adopt technologies of a more universal use

(Spiru et al; 2019). Arning and Ziefle (2007) found

that older adult users do not take into account the time

and effectiveness of the new technologies but they

put value on the results.

3 TECHNOLOGY ACCEPTANCE

MODELS

For understanding technology acceptance by older

adults, research employs either the classic models

largely deployed for adult working population and for

youth (Venkatesh et al, 2003; Venkatesh et al.,

2012) or those developed especially for older

adults. The first refer to ‘Technology Acceptance

Model’ (TAM) and ‘Unified Theory of Acceptance

and the Use of Technology’ (UTAUT and UTAUT2)

(Guner and Acarturk, 2020; Macedo, 2017) while the

second refer to The Senior Technology Acceptance

Model (STAM), which was proposed by Renaud and

Biljon (2008) and the Gerontechnology Acceptance

Model proposed by Chen and Chan (2013).

The models’ limit is seen in inspecting into the

‘Behavioural Intention to Use’ without inquiring

into the ‘Actual Usage’ (Bouwhuis et al, 2008) as the

‘Perceived Usefulness’ does not equal adoption. They

proved insufficiently relevant due to the specific

characteristics of older adults and of limited

relevance due to the fact that they have been tested on

specific technologies, i.e. mobile phone adoption

(Renaud and Van Biljon, 2008). More, some

studies refer to older adults as ‘people over 55’,

which increases the heterogeneity within the old aged

group and affects the findings with respect to the

levels of adoption and effective usage of new

technologies (Arenas Gaitán et al, 2015).

The models so far developed are complex, cost

timing, and require sophisticated proficiency for

interpretation. All these constitute barriers for the

researchers to scale the models or for the marketers

From Age to Age: Key Gerontographics Contributions to Technology Adoption by Older Adults

123

to endorse these models, when new technologies and

gerontechnologies are to be tested.

4 METHODOLOGY

We employed a survey methodology because this

approach affords the comparative analysis among the

four gerontographics groups providing insight into

the details of actual usage and the perceived meanings

associated to technology, hence ‘perceived

usefulness’. This study was not aiming at testing

models of technology acceptance (e.g. TAM), but to

contribute to a better understanding of what is

‘perceived usefulness’ for each of the four

gerontographic groups. The central question was ‘Are

technologies ascribed different meanings based on

individual factors or do they hold different meanings

based on the groups characteristics?’

The study was based on a survey conducted in

Romania, Cyprus and Slovenia over the course of

February and April, 2019. The end-users survey had

a convenient sample of members. The sample size is

moderate, comparative to those samples which served

as basis for the studies conducted by (Ma et al., 2016;

Li et al 2018).

In order to recruit participants, the project

coordinator of each country contacted the

administrators of nursing homes, day centers,

hospitals and retirement homes and older adults at

home and asked for their permission to test the Senior

TV product. All study participants provided informed

consent.

In the case of Romania, out of the 52 respondents,

20 withdrew from the trial section. There were two

main motivations for the high drop-out rates: 1) the

perception of an intrusive nature of the testing, as the

Senior-TV device needed to be installed on their own

private television set and the testing should have been

placed in their own homes and 2) the irrelevance of

the product to their current interests and lifestyle.

Members’ physical and psychological wellbeing

is estimated by asking respondents to answer to the

short version of the Health Survey (SF12), a scale to

indicate the physical and psychological state of the

respondents, and which ultimately led us to employ

the gerontograhics segmentation. We have included

the “Verbal Fluency Test” (VFT) which is an

instrument for cognitive assessment that was

administrated at the very beginning of the testing

period by the field-operators along SF12.

The third cycle pilot included a total of 125

primary end-users who were distributed as following:

52 from Romania, 30 from Cyprus and 43 from

Slovenia. Chi-square tests of homogeneity were

conducted to determine if there were significant

differences between category frequencies. For the

case of Romania, there were 52 older adults pre-trial

interviewed and the drop-out rate was of 20 seniors.

One third of the older adults were living at home

independently, while the rest were residing in nursing

homes and sanatoriums. The 125 respondents were

57-90 years old, and the average was 73, while the

most frequent age was 70. The third group, physically

well but psychologically not well (ph+ps-),

constituted the largest group among the sample,

comprising 49% of respondents. Half of them live in

Slovenia and the other half is equally distributed

across Romania and Cyprus. The first group (ph+ps+)

accounted for 15% of the sample and they are the

older adults at home who have been interviewed in

Romania. The fourth group, those physically and

psychologically not well, ph-ps- (30%) are equally

distributed across Romania, Cyprus and Slovenia.

The smallest group, (6 persons) are those physically

not well, but psychologically well, ph-ps+.

5 RESULTS

Our research shows a clear distinction between the

early usage of technology of the now older adults,

which indicates that the current actual usage of

technology is much dependent on the ‘relevance’ or

‘perceived usefulness’ that is ascribed to a specific

technology. Older adults who are now

psychologically well, encountered much earlier the

four main technologies which radically changed

information access, communication and

entertainment at a global scale: TV, Mobile,

Computer and Internet, comparative to the two

categories of older adults who are not psychologically

well.

These last two categories encounter technologies

such as computer and internet, on average, with

between 10 and 25 years later. Their late interest in

technologies runs counter to the popular narrative of

an existence of a negative relationship between age

per se and technology usage.

The results also emphasize that the current usage

of technology does not depend on the starting age of

using technology, as the ageing process may change

the habits of usage of various technologies.

With respect to the ‘actual usage’, sharp

differences are noted among the four categories

coupled as those who do psychologically well

(ps+ph+ and ps+ph-) and those who do not (ps-ph+

ICT4AWE 2021 - 7th International Conference on Information and Communication Technologies for Ageing Well and e-Health

124

and ps-ps-) in using the TV services. The below table

shows that none of those who are psychologically

well use any of these TV services. Research findings

clearly indicates that for older adults not

psychologically well, there is a high incidence of

usage of TV Smart Application (Pearson R=.484) and

also high correlations for the cases of TV Images

(Pearson’s R=.369).

We inquired if each of the four gerontographics

groups ascribe different meanings or ‘perceived

usefulness’ to technology. We noticed that watching

TV does not share many mentally associations for

those psychologically well, while there are plenty of

mentally associations attributed to TV watching by

those psychologically not well, irrespective of their

physical state, as shown in table 1.

If information and social integration, along

enjoyment prevail for the first two categories who are

psychological well, the last two categories who are

not psychologically well associate TV watching with

decreasing loneliness and companionship to a high

degree. From those in good health and active

(ps+ph+) the majority (62.5%) and the many of them

(42.9%) appreciate TV for ‘Information’ and ‘Social

Integration’, respectively. Those in poor health and

active (ps+ph-) along ‘Information’ (66.7%) and

‘Social Integration’ (50%) also appreciate

‘Enjoyment’ (66.7%).

Notable differences may be found also among the

last two categories, which need to be accounted by the

technology developers, designers and marketers:

those in good health but without a social life, ps-ph+

and thouse bound due to poor health (ps-ph-). If the

overwhelming majority of those in good health but

without a social life associate TV watching with

decreasing loneliness (83.6%) while also looking for

information (80.3%), those who are bound due to

poor health look first for enjoyment (89.5%) and

decreasing loneliness (76.5%)and companionship

equally (75%).

Nevertheless, TV watching is associated with

‘Social Integration’, which matters for each category

of older adults, though it increases in significance

from those independent to those dependent, namely

form those socially active who also have other means

for social integration to those who lack that (42.9% to

60.6%) TV maybe being the only or one of avery few

vehicles for their sense of belonging to society after

retirement.

Table 1: The most frequent age of starting to use technologies based on the gerontographics segmentation.

Table 2: The actual use of new technologies for Tv from a Gerontographics Perspective.

ph+ps+

(most

fre

uent a

ph-ps+

(most

fre

uent a

ph+ps-

(most

fre

uent a

ph-ps-

(most

fre

uent a

Started Watching TV 10 yrs 25 yrs 20 yrs 15 yrs

Started Phoning from

Mobile

50 yrs 50 yrs 60 yrs 60 yrs

Started Accessing

Com

ute

40 yrs 45 yrs 60 yrs 65 yrs

Started Navigating on

Internet

60 yrs 45 yrs 70 yrs 65 yrs

Radio

on TV

Teletext

on TV

SmartApp

on TV

TV Images

on TV

TV Video

on TV

ph-ps- 7.7% 20.5% 69.2% 56.4% 43.3%

ph+ps-

16.1% 16.1% 71.4% 51.8% 37.5%

ph-ps+ 0.0% 0.0% 0.0% 0.0% 0.0%

ph+ps+ 0.0% 0.0% 0.0% 0.0% 0.0%

From Age to Age: Key Gerontographics Contributions to Technology Adoption by Older Adults

125

Table 3: The associations of meaning of TV watching based on the gerontographics segmentation.

Table 4: The Relation between the Gerontographics Segmentation and the Perceived Usefulness and Social Influence Variable

in the Framework of Gerontographics Technology Adoption by Older Adults (G-TAO).

What made some of the older adults to explore a

new technology and prevent others from a new

technology experience in spite of their openness to

participate into the study? In our research, the

dropout rates occurred only for the older adults

psychologically well, which indicate that the

‘Perceived Usefulness’ (PU) is key for these 2

categories (physically well or unwell, while

psychologically well). The ‘Perceived Usefulness’

gives the incentive towards the exploration and

experimentation stage, which afterwards confirm or

infirm the ‘Perceived Usefulness’ of the product or

service and, in the end, it translates into the

acceptation or rejection of the new technologies. That

confirms the results presented by Moschis (2003;

2019) which show that independent seniors avoid

opting for gerontechnologies and any technology

services which age-stigmatize, preferring to opt

instead for universal technologies. Our research

shows that for the case of the older adults bound due

to poor health (ps-ph-), the ‘Perceived Usefulness’

variable is not of relevance, as they are influenced by

formal and informal carers in their openness

towards new technologies and gerontechnologies

exploration and adoption. The situation of the group

in good health but without a social life (ps-ph+) is

similar, as they are influenced by their informal

entourage, more specifically by their relatives or

informal carers.

Social Influence (SI) stays for the degree to which

an individual believes that what others feel if he or

she should use a particular technology and it has been

identified as a relevant factor in accepting technology

(Or and Karsh, 2009; Venkatesh et al., 2003;

Thompson et al., 1991; Lee, 2007; Mallenius et al.,

2007). We have found that social influence matters

only with respect to older adults who are

psychologically unwell, for the groups ph+/- ps -.

Therefore, ‘Social Influence’ (SI) is considered here

in tandem with ‘Perceived Usefulness.

The table above presents the detailed explanation

of the findings and summarizes the relation of each

gerontographics category with technology, the

predisposition and the perceived usefulness for older

Information Enjoyment

Decrease

loneliness

ompanionship

Social

integration

Ritual

ph+ps- 62.5% 37.5% 18.8% 31.3% 42.9% 36.0%

ph-ps+

66.7% 66.7% 16.7% 33.4% 50.0% -

ph+ps- 80.3% 54.5% 83.6% 52.8% 57.7% 61.5%

ph-ps- 72.9% 89.5% 76.5% 75.0% 60.6% 48.6%

The actual usage of new technologies

related to Tv

Perceived Usefulness/

Social Influence

ph±ps+

1.No usage

2.No predisposition for new technologies

3.Watching TV Meaning:

Information & Enjoyment (strong emphasis on

ment for

)

1. Perceived usefulness: New Information

(No redundancy of TV, smart phones

&Internet Services)

2. Perceived usefulness: New Information

& En

ment

ph+ps-

1. Diverse usage of the new technologies

2. Predisposition for new technologies

3. Watching TV Meaning: Information, Decrease

loneliness & Ritual

1.secondary beneficiaries/ Informal carers

ph-ps-

1. Diverse usage of TV Services

2. Predisposition for new technologies

3.Watching TV meaning: Enjoyment, Decrease

Loneliness, Companionship, Information & Social

Integration

1 nursing professionals 2.Secondary

beneficiaries support

ICT4AWE 2021 - 7th International Conference on Information and Communication Technologies for Ageing Well and e-Health

126

adults psychologically well, or social influences for

older adults psychologically unwell, in the case of

new technologies. ‘Social Influence’ and ‘Perceived

Usefulness’ should not be considered as predictors

per se, but based on the gerontographics

differentiation, these variables should apply to older

adults based on the degree of (in)dependency.

6 DISCUSSION

The sharp differences between the two categories

psychologically well and the two categories

psychologically not well, shows us that 1) the last

two categories, those who are psychological not

well, are the target market for new technologies

and gerontechnologies. In spite of their

chronological age, they manifest a late interest in

technology predisposition and usage, which is not

shared by the other two categories in their old

adulthood. Their late interest in technologies runs

counter to the popular narrative of an existence of a

negative relationship between age per se and

technology usage; 2) the current usage of technology

does not depend on the starting age of using

technology, as the ageing process changes the habits

of usage of various technologies. An explanation for

that might be that those psychologically well,

irrespective of their current physical state, encounter

technology in their professional and social life prior to

retirement. For those older adults, the life changes

which occur after retirement decrease the necessity

for technology adoption. On the contrary to that,

those psychologically not well have a decreased

interest in the newness of technology prior to

retirement but, when their life after retirement

radically change into more isolation and loneliness,

their interest in technology increases as technology

becomes the only source for meeting social and

personal basic needs; 3) we are also entitled to

hypothesized that the predisposition of using

technology might be an early indicator or predictor

of the state of health and of the gerontographics type

of the individual ageing process.

Our study found that access to information is of

value to the older adults who are physically and

psychologically well, while all the other value

technologies which support them in decreasing

loneliness, ritual, companionship or enjoyment.

Those who are psychologically well do not use

anymore the old technologies and have a limited

adoption of new technologies. They started the

relation with mobile, computer and internet earlier

on average but did not continue to endorse new

technology after retirement. We found that the first

reason for the limited relevance of new

technologies for older adults psychologically well

is the redundancy or duplication of services in

communication, information and others, such as

agenda, video-call, alarm notifications, weather, news

or health monitoring and information. Therefore,

when conceptualizing new technologies which target

older adults their participation in the project idea

development is as important as their participation

in the design of the project.

The Older adults Technology Adoption Model

Revisited. Our aim was to advance a new model for

technology adoption by older adults which is

simplified comparative to the existent models and

which has a better prediction power. We adapted the

most frequent theoretical models and validated a new

universal comprehensive understanding for older

adults’ technology adoption, starting from the

gerontographics segmentation. Gerontographics gave

us a more in-depth understanding of the relation

between the older adults’ technology habits and the

predisposition towards the usage of new technologies

or gerontechnologies. Our contribution refers to the

already mentioned two conceptual models designed

for older adults. We found that in the case of older

adults psychologically well, the ‘Perceived

Usefulness’ of a new technology determines the

acceptance or rejection of a technology, while in the

case of those psychologically unwell, the influence of

the formal and/or informal caregivers is decisive.

Once that the technology is accepted, the perceived

ease of use will lead to the adoption or rejection of

that technology, though that might preserve a limited

usage of the technology in case, based on the

relevance of that technology ascribed in one’s life.

The ascribed relevance is a dynamic process which

change in time in close relation with the physical and

psychological individual changes.

Based on the research findings, both E4L and

iCan projects would learn how to enter into the silver

market. The new technologies should target those

psychologically well differently from those

psychologically not well, who will be actually

targeted through their informal carers. Those

physically and psychologically well will opt for new

technological solutions as long as these avoid age-

stigmatizing and emphasize on the added value of

informational aspects, which give them the 'perceived

usefulness'. For those physically not well, but still

psychologically well, entertainment along

information is of equal value. Those psychologically

not well have a predisposition towards new

technologies in the sense that they expect from them

From Age to Age: Key Gerontographics Contributions to Technology Adoption by Older Adults

127

Figure 1: The Framework of Gerontographics Technology Adoption by Older Adults (G-TAO).

companionship, to ritualize their day and to increase

their sense of being socially integrated. Though, their

formal and informal carers much influence their

perceived usefulness and decision in the adoption of

new technologies.

In conclusion, this is, to our knowledge, the first

study which inquires and considers the mentally

ascribed meanings of technology as factors

influencing the acceptance of technology. The high

diversity of the older adult population, the variety of

their unmet needs and motivations (Valk et al 2018;

Golant, 2017; Schomakers et al 2018) need to

be accounted for when proposing new

technologies and gerontechnologies to older adults.

Our findings are valuable for their increased

simplification and effectiveness due to the

employment of gerontographics segmentation. Our

model shows that the relation of older adults with

technology and the barriers which arose are

differently experienced by segments with dissimilar

physical and psychological well-being and

support the value of the gerontographics in

conceptualizing, developing and marketing new

technologies and gerontechnologies to the older

adult population.

ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS

This work was performed in the frame of the EU project

Senior-TV (AAL/Call2014/171), with implementation

period Nov-2015 -April 2019, Ella4Life

(AAL/Call2017/035/2017, with implementation period

June 2018 - May 2021), and iCan (AAL/2019/182) funded

by the AAL Programme and co-funded by the European

Commission and the National Funding Authorities of the

partner countries.

REFERENCES

Arenas Gaitán, J., Peral Peral, B. and Ramón Jerónimo, M.,

2015. Elderly and internet banking: An application of

UTAUT2. Journal of Internet Banking and Commerce,

20 (1), 1-23.

Arning, K. and Ziefle, M., 2007. Understanding age

differences in PDA acceptance and performance.

Computers in Human Behavior, 23(6), pp.2904-2927.

Bouwhuis, D.G., Meesters, L.M. and Berentsen, J., 2008.

Technology acceptance models in gerontechnology.

In the 6th International Conference of the International

Society of Gernotechnoloy (ISG).

Chen, K. and Chan, A.H.S., 2013. Gerontechnology

acceptance by elderly Hong Kong Chinese: a senior

technology acceptance model (STAM). Ergonomics,

57(5), pp.635-652.

Chen, M.L., Lu, T.E., Chen, K.J. and Liu, C.E. 2011. A

TAM-based study on senior citizens digital learning

and user behavioral intention toward use of broadband

network technology services provided via television.

African Journal of Business Management, 5(16), 2011,

pp.7099-7110

Friemel, T.N., 2016. The digital divide has grown old:

Determinants of a digital divide among seniors. New

media & society, 18(2), pp.313-331.

Golant, S.M., 2017. A theoretical model to explain the

smart technology adoption behaviors of elder

consumers (Elderadopt). Journal of Aging Studies, 42,

pp.56-73.

Guner, H. and Acarturk, C., 2020. The use and acceptance

of ICT by senior citizens: a comparison of technology

acceptance model (TAM) for elderly and young

adults. Universal Access in the Information

Society, 19(2), pp.311-330.

Juznic, P., Blazic, M., Mercun, T., Plestenjak, B. and

Majcenovic, D., 2006. Who says that old dogs cannot

learn new tricks? New Library World, 107(7/8),

pp.332-345.

Li, J., Ma, Q., Chan, A.H. and Man, S.S., 2019. Health

monitoring through wearable technologies for older

adults: Smart wearables acceptance model. Applied

ergonomics, 75, pp.162-169.

Ma, Q., Chan, A.H. and Chen, K., 2016. Personal and other

factors affecting acceptance of smartphone technology

by older Chinese adults. Applied ergonomics, 54,

pp.62-71.

Macedo, I.M., 2017. Predicting the acceptance and use of

information and communication technology by older

adults: An empirical examination of the revised



Gerontrographic

segmentation

Perceived

Usefulness/

SocialInfluence

Acceptance

EaseofUse

Adoption

Rejection

Not(optimal)

Usage

ICT4AWE 2021 - 7th International Conference on Information and Communication Technologies for Ageing Well and e-Health

128

UTAUT2. Computers in Human Behavior, 75, pp.935-

948.

Mallenius, S., Rossi, M. and Tuunainen, V.K., 2007.

Factors affecting the adoption and use of mobile

devices and services by elderly people–results from a

pilot study. 6th Annual Global Mobility Roundtable,

31, p.12.

Mitzner, T.L., Boron, J.B., Fausset, C.B., Adams, A.E.,

Charness, N., Czaja, S.J., Dijkstra, K., Fisk, A.D.,

Rogers, W.A. and Sharit, J., 2010. Older adults talk

technology: Technology usage and

attitudes. Computers in human behavior, 26(6),

pp.1710-1721.

Moschis, G.P. and Mathur, A., 1993. How they're acting

their age. Marketing Management, 2(2), p.40.

Moschis, G.P., 1996. Gerontographics: Life-stage

segmentation for marketing strategy development.

Greenwood Publishing Group.

Moschis, G.P., 2003. Marketing to older adults: an updated

overview of present knowledge and practice. Journal

of Consumer Marketing, 20(6), pp.516-525.

Moschis, G.P., Mathur, A. and Sthienrapapayut, T., 2020.

Gerontographics and consumer behavior in later life:

Insights from the life course paradigm. Journal of

Global Scholars of Marketing Science, 30(1), pp.18-33.

Moschis, George P. 2019. Consumer Behavior over the

Life Course. Research Frontiers and New Directions,

Springer Nature.

Nimrod, G., 2013. Applying Gerontographics in the study

of older Internet users. Participations: Journal of

Audience & Reception Studies, 10(2), pp.46-64

Östlund, B., 2010. Watching television in later life: a

deeper understanding of TV viewing in the homes of

old people and in geriatric care contexts. Scandinavian

journal of caring sciences, 24(2), pp.233-243.

Paul, C. Sterea, A., Mârzan, M. Economidou, A., Iztok,

Garleanu, A. 2019. Why do seniors accept or reject new

technologies? BRAIN INFO 2019, The Fourth

International Conference on Neuroscience and

Cognitive Brain Information.

Peacock, S.E. and Künemund, H., 2007. Senior citizens and

Internet technology. European journal of ageing, 4(4),

pp.191-200.

Ramón-Jerónimo, M.A., Peral-Peral, B. and Arenas-

Gaitan, J., 2013. Elderly persons and Internet

use. Social Science Computer Review, 31(4), pp.389-

403.

Renaud, K. and Van Biljon, J., 2008, October. Predicting

technology acceptance and adoption by the elderly: a

qualitative study. In Proceedings of the 2008 annual

research conference of the South African Institute of

Computer Scientists and Information Technologists on

IT research in developing countries: riding the wave of

technology, pp. 210-219.

Schomakers, E.M., Lidynia, C. and Ziefle, M., 2018.

Exploring the Acceptance of mHealth Applications-Do

Acceptance Patterns Vary Depending on Context? In

International Conference on Applied Human Factors

and Ergonomics, Springer, Cham, pp.53-64.

Sharit, J., Czaja, S.J., Hernandez, M.A. and Nair, S.N.,

2009. The employability of older workers as

teleworkers: An appraisal of issues and an empirical

study. Human Factors and Ergonomics in

Manufacturing & Service Industries, 19(5), pp.457-

477.

Spiru, L., Paul, C., Velciu, M., Voicu, A. and Marzan, M.,

2019. Understanding Elderly User Experience on the

Use of New Technologies for Independent Living, Int'l

Conf. Health Informatics and Medical Systems,

HIMS'19

Steenstra, P., 2015. Elderly classification and involvement

in the design process: Framework for specification of

the elderly within user centred design. Bachelor's thesis,

University of Twente.

Sthienrapapayut, T., Moschis, G.P. and Mathur, A., 2018.

Using gerontographics to explain consumer behaviour

in later life: evidence from a Thai study. Journal of

Consumer Marketing.

Valk, C.A.L., Lu, Y., Randriambelonoro, M. and Jessen, J.,

2018. August. Designing for technology acceptance of

wearable and mobile technologies for senior citizen

users. In 21st DMI: Academic Design Management

Conference (ADMC 2018), pp. 1361-1373. The Design

Management Institute.

Venkatesh, V., Morris, M.G., Davis, G.B. and Davis, F.D.,

2003. User acceptance of information technology:

Toward a unified view. MIS quarterly, pp.425-478.

Venkatesh, V., Thong, J.Y. and Xu, X., 2012. Consumer

acceptance and use of information technology:

extending the unified theory of acceptance and use of

technology. MIS quarterly, pp.157-178.

Vichitvanichphong, S., Talaei-Khoei, A. and Kerr, D.,

2017. January. Elderly’s perception about the value of

assistive technologies for their daily living: Impacting

factors and theoretical support. In Proceedings of the

50th Hawaii International Conference on System

Sciences.

Wildenbos, G.A., Jaspers, M.W., Schijven, M.P. and

Dusseljee-Peute, L.W., 2019. Mobile health for older

adult patients: Using an aging barriers framework to

classify usability problems. International journal of

medical informatics, 124, pp.68-77.

From Age to Age: Key Gerontographics Contributions to Technology Adoption by Older Adults

129