고령자 친화형 스마트워치의 노인 소비자 수용과 사회복지사, 자녀의 평가 연구 - 통합기술수용모형을 중심으로 - = Older Adult Consumers’ Acceptance of Senior-Friendly Smartwatches and the Evaluation of the Smartwatches by Social Workers and Adult Children

다국어 초록 (Multilingual Abstract)

This study aims to provide information on how to raise older adult consumers’ acceptance rates of senior-friendly smartwatches and to present practical implications for their support.
This study explored older adults’ acceptance of senior-friendly smartwatches with various healthcare functions and senior user interface (UI) and examined the factors affecting their acceptance using the Unified Theory of Acceptance and Use of Technology (UTAUT) model. It also surveyed social workers and adult children, the main supporters of the older adult generation, regarding their evaluations of senior-friendly smartwatches and related welfare policies. Online surveys were conducted with 300 consumers aged 60 years and older, 30 social workers, and 200 children with their parents.
The results showed that older adult consumers’ perceived usefulness and perceived necessity of the individual functions of senior-friendly smartwatch and their intention to use them were strong. Particularly, functions such as emergency rescue calls and heart rate, blood oxygen, and physical activity monitoring received relatively higher scores. There are significant differences among older adult consumers in terms of sociodemographic/household characteristics, healthcare conditions, and digital device proficiency. Among the four antecedent factors from the UTAUT model, performance expectancy and social influence had significant positive effects on the intention to use the smartwatch, and the intention to use the device positively affected the intention to purchase it. The impact of performance expectancy on intention to use was greater for older adults living alone than for those living with other family members, and the impact of social influence on intention to use was significant only for the latter. For older adults with high digital device proficiency, the intention to use the device significantly increases their purchase intention. Finally, both social workers and children favored all healthcare functions of the senior-friendly smartwatch, and their preferences among the functions showed similar pattern to older adults, who preferred emergency calls and physical monitoring functions.
There were significant differences in children’s perceptions of their parents’ acceptance level of the device according to their parents’ age, health care conditions and especially digital device proficiency level. Family members and professional older adult care personnel were chosen as the preferred support sources for older adults by both social workers and children. Social workers prioritized supporting older adults living alone and excluded from healthcare access.
They also selected those who were enthusiastic about their health and had high digital proficiency for prior support. Social workers and children have proposed Senior-friendly UI and functions such as voice alarms, automatic sensor, and AI to improve older adults’ smartwatch usability, as well as repetitive face-to-face education and prompt network connectivity between the device and medical/welfare facilities.
This study considered the characteristics of older adult consumers and the specific senior- friendly functions designed for the prototype device to create research model, providing practical implications for increasing older adults’ acceptance of the device. Furthermore, data from not only older adults but also their children and social workers were analyzed to improve the results’ reliability and draw multifaceted implications for practice.