Older adults’ attitudes and preferences regarding a multifunctional wellness tool: A pilot study

Abstract

Objective: To examine older adults’ attitudes toward multifunctional technology tools and specific preferences and expectations that would maximize their utility and usability. Methods: We held three focus group sessions for this pilot study to determine perceptions of older adults toward multifunctional wellness tools, including usefulness and barriers to use. Areas discussed included features that would be wanted or unwanted, form factor and context of use. Recordings were transcribed and qualitative content analysis was performed. Results: Fourteen older adults participated in the focus group sessions. Participants viewed potential uses for wellness tools with regard to their health and health information positively, as they felt currently available tools were lacking. In addition, participants felt that a single-user, smaller, portable device would be more useful than a non-portable multi-user device. Concerns were expressed toward technologies that were difficult to use with aging-related changes, privacy and perceptions of technology. Conclusions: Participants felt generally positively toward a multifunctional wellness tool and would be willing to use one if it were portable, intuitive and had reliable health-related information on the device.

• Consumer health
• older adults
• wellness tools

Declaration of interest

This study was supported, in part, by the National Library of Medicine Biomedical and Health Informatics Training Grant T15 LM007442.