Model of Acceptance and Use of Market-Ready Home-Based e-Care Services: A Qualitative Study with Care Receivers and Informal Caregivers

Abstract

Because of population aging, home-based e-care services (HBECSs) have raised interest among users and service providers. Recently, scholars have focused extensively on the needs and motives of older adults as care receivers that shape their pre-implementation acceptance of such technologies. Yet, little is known to date about post-implementation experiences and interrelationships between acceptance factors of market-ready services among care receivers and caregivers. To fill this research gap, an intervention study lasting up to eight weeks tested three market-ready HBECSs. Semi-structured interviews were conducted with seven informal caregivers and six care receivers. Qualitative analysis combining grounded theory with thematic analysis was used to present a thematic description of participants’ experiences and inductively develop a substantive model of HBECS acceptance and use. The results detail the impact and expected benefits of such technologies and various barriers to HBECSs use in conjunction with their functionalities and users’ social interactions. Acceptance and future use are determined by a complex mix of interrelated factors. These range from contextual circumstances to characteristics of the caregivers and care receivers to the service properties and perceived outcomes of use, such as safety, psychological relief, and peace of mind.

Acknowledgments

The authors thank the participants who took part in this study, as well as Peter Pustatičnik and Elena Nikolavčič (Telekom Slovenije) for their useful feedback on an early version of the manuscript. Mojca Šetinc, Anja Tuš, and Otto Gerdina are acknowledged for their valuable assistance in the data collection and analysis. We would also like to thank Mojca Šetinc for her help in finding and describing the features of the three tested home-based e-care services.

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the author(s).

Notes

1 Other participants in the sample were older adults testing mobile and wearable devices—such as smartwatches and smartphone apps—that were designed for individual use (i.e., without informal carers monitoring their activities). For details, refer to Dolničar et al. (2017).

2 In the following text, the elaborated categories and subcategories are presented in italics for easier recognition.

Additional information

Funding

This work was supported by the Slovenian Research Agency [Grant Nos. J5-1785, L5-9337, P5-0399] and by Telekom Slovenije d.d.

Notes on contributors

Matic Kavčič

Matic Kavčič is an assistant professor of sociology at the Faculty of Health Sciences and Faculty of Social Sciences, University of Ljubljana, Slovenia. His research topics lie in the area of sociology of health and illness, quality of life, care and e-care for the elderly, interprofessional collaboration and user involvement.

Andraž Petrovčič

Andraž Petrovčič is an assistant professor of Social Informatics and a research fellow at the Centre for Social Informatics in the Faculty of Social Sciences at University of Ljubljana, Slovenia. His research interests include mobile usability, age-friendly interaction design, and socio-technical determinants of digital inequalities in later life.

Vesna Dolničar

Vesna Dolničar is an associate professor and a researcher at the University of Ljubljana, Faculty of Social Sciences, Centre for Social Informatics. Her main research topics are acceptability of ICT-supported services and psychosocial outcomes of their use among older people and informal carers in the field of health and social care.